Alyssa Carlier | The Devil Orders Takeout

BLOG TOUR: Jade War by Fonda Lee aka I’m too shook to write a review

2019-07-22T22:48:00.000+08:00

Huge thanks to Shealea & Caffeine Book Tours for sending me a free review copy of this book. Follow the tour here!

Because I have excellent planning skills, I decided to read JADE WAR this past weekend, right before this blog post needed to be up.

This, dearest booklings, was a mistake. Because I am literally?? too shook??? to write a review? For newcomers to this series, check out my JADE CITY review here. For my fellow sufferers, imagine that review but with a lot of background screaming.

I JUST. I CANNOT USE WORDS TO DESCRIBE. this sequel is basically Jade City dialled up to eleven, also the NUMBER OF PIECES MY HEART IS IN.

You know what, I will stop shrieking (this really isn’t a review!) and show you how pretty and scarily red this book is:

If you look very closely, the silhouettes of city buildings is just barely visible. I’m extremely curious where that photo is from, since I suspect I recognise one of the buildings from Hong Kong? (New friends, that is where I currently shriek. And that would be just be so perfect since the worldbuilding just felt like home.

Not that Hong Kong is ruled by the mafia with superpowers. But this intense belonging is at once a testament to Fonda Lee’s superb worldbuilding and also a special recommendation to any fans of Asian-inspired fantasy out there — this book is one you do NOT want to miss.

(Oh and you should also check out this giveaway of STRONGER THAN A BRONZE DRAGON, another cool Asian-inspired fantasy that’s just as fun but much less terrifying. But I’m not the boss of you, maybe you like terror in your life, just keep reading this post.)

As for the characters, I honestly can only scream. But you can’t blame my emotions completely for this, I also have to stay vague to keep this spoiler-free for Jade City. *nods vigorously* That’s why.

(SHAE. SHAEEEE. My favourite. Do any of you even get why I am screaming. Trust me, this line sounds cool but you will be shrieking at your book.)

*quietly assumes that you already bought this because YES YOU SHOULD*

I absolutely wanted to save this rainbow dragon graphic for my gay son Anden but for some reason I ended up using it for Hilo instead? But he deserves it. The sheer character development that Hilo has been through, my goodness. My heart could barely take it.

(ALL THE CHARACTERS DESERVE GOOD THINGS. I HOPE THE AUTHOR HEARS ME.)

ANDEN SWEETIE when did you grow up. I had to actually take a break when I read this line because I was just terrified. the JADE WAR experience: endless terror that you desperately want.

I am also endlessly laughing at the fact that this last graphic looks like a Meaningful Life Quote Quite Possibly from Matthews 14:15. I would have redesigned it to look more modern but I suppose they say laughter is the best medicine for the soul, and my soul has absolutely been through enough.

Feel free to use any of these wallpapers for personal use, by the way! Use the last one to troll people with Life Inspiring Advice from a mafia fantasy novel, I DARE YOU.

(Please link your friends here instead of reposting these images <3)

And now, ALL the information about JADE WAR that will send you running to the bookstores on July 23!

Synopsis:
In Jade War, the sequel to the World Fantasy Award-winning novel Jade City, the Kaul siblings battle rival clans for honor and control over an Asia-inspired fantasy metropolis.

On the island of Kekon, the Kaul family is locked in a violent feud for control of the capital city and the supply of magical jade that endows trained Green Bone warriors with supernatural powers they alone have possessed for hundreds of years.

Beyond Kekon's borders, war is brewing. Powerful foreign governments and mercenary criminal kingpins alike turn their eyes on the island nation. Jade, Kekon's most prized resource, could make them rich - or give them the edge they'd need to topple their rivals.

Faced with threats on all sides, the Kaul family is forced to form new and dangerous alliances, confront enemies in the darkest streets and the tallest office towers, and put honor aside in order to do whatever it takes to ensure their own survival - and that of all the Green Bones of Kekon.

Jade War is the second book of the Green Bone Saga, an epic trilogy about family, honor, and those who live and die by the ancient laws of blood and jade.

Book links: Amazon / Book Depository / Goodreads

GIVEAWAY: Stronger Than A Bronze Dragon

2019-06-13T00:09:00.001+08:00

Welcome, book fiends! Gather round our bubbling cauldron of sakura potion -- it's time for a brand new giveaway!

But first, I think this book deserves a bit of a special introduction! I read STRONGER THAN A BRONZE DRAGON as part of a book tour organised by The Royal Polar Bear Reads.

I absolutely love how this book focuses on a commoner POV that in many other books would simply be a sidekick. Anlei is a forceful protagonist with just a little hint of darkness, and her character arc is super interesting. I also adore how the book digs into the nuances of privilege and power in the worldbuilding. It’s a super fun and action-packed book that you should definitely try!

(Shout-out to Shealea @ Shut Up Shealea for buddy reading this with me!)

Oh, right, giveaway! A huge thank you to the author, Mary Fan, for giving away a signed copy to you guys when I flung myself shrieking at her, haha.

To enter the giveaway, simply type your email address below! This means joining my takeout army for our little regular giveaways, so I will send you emails about bonus entries, who won, and more giveaway information. reload the page if this form isn't visible. Once you've entered, you'll receive an email with details on how to redeem bonus entries—so go and check it now! Because you entered, right? riiiiiight?

Blurb (buy links here):

When a powerful viceroy arrives with a fleet of mechanical dragons and stops an attack on Anlei’s village, the villagers see him as a godsend. They agree to give him their sacred, enchanted River Pearl in exchange for permanent protection—if he’ll marry one of the village girls to solidify the alliance. Anlei is appalled when the viceroy selects her as a bride, but with the fate of her people at stake, she sees no choice but to consent. Anlei’s noble plans are sent into a tailspin, however, when a young thief steals the River Pearl for himself. Knowing the viceroy won’t protect her village without the jewel, she takes matters into her own hands. But once she catches the thief, she discovers he needs the pearl just as much as she does. The two embark on an epic quest across the land and into the Courts of Hell, taking Anlei on a journey that reveals more is at stake than she could have ever imagined.

ISBN: 162414733X. Author bio: Mary Fan is a hopeless dreamer, whose mind insists on spinning tales of “what if.” As a music major in college, she told those stories through compositions. Now, she tells them through books—a habit she began as soon as she could pick up a pencil. Mary lives in New Jersey and has a B.A. from Princeton University. When she’s not scheming to create new worlds, she enjoys kickboxing, opera singing, and blogging about everything having to do with books.

This giveaway will run until August 15th, at which point I shall select a winner and have a new giveaway for everyone else. Yay!

This prize will be shipped internationally.

help i'm a smol marshmallow with no legal knowledge but here goes:

Official details regarding this giveaway: No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Entrants must be 18 or above or have parental/guardian permission. Giveaway, bot, or other suspicious accounts will be removed at organiser's discretion. In holding this giveaway, the organiser does not endorse this book or this publisher. The prize will be a finished copy of STRONGER THAN A BRONZE DRAGON or another substitute prize at organiser's discretion. Winner drawn on August 15th. Entrants' email addresses are collected for the purposes of entry confirmation, notifying winners, providing information regarding bonus entries, and further updates on new giveaways. These details are subject to change.

7 smart tricks for authors/bloggers starting a mailing list // since we're all jumping on the hype train

2019-03-30T20:30:00.000+08:00

Hello bookish fiends! Today we have a super detailed guide for authors or bloggers trying to wrap their minds around this "mailing list" phenomenon! You will want to know these tricks so you don't smush yourselves into a mud puddle infested with spiky urchins. Like bb!Alyssa did 2 years ago.

(but Alyssa spiky urchins don't live in mud puddles--SHHH I'm a fantasy author I do what I want.)

If you don't want to miss out on future tips, be sure to sign up here.

Why do you need a mailing list?

Under our capitalist overlords, we've got to earn money for books and food! (Yes, I put books first.) If you want to monetise your book blog or sell your own books, a mailing list is an incredibly helpful direct line of contact to the people who are interested in what you're offering.

So let's get to the TRICKZ that will get you ahead of the curve.

1. Don't ask people if you should start a newsletter.

Say, "I'm thinking of doing a newsletter! Sign up if you'd read it!"

If you can't be bothered to set anything up, that's manageable -- just ask people to message you their email address.

People vote yes on your Twitter poll, then forget about it. Action is the best way to confirm interest! This isn't a major tip, but I see y'all doing it on Twitter and it's a pet peeve.

2. Mailchimp is not the only option. Really.

Okay, MailChimp isn't bad! I started on this and still use it for a few things I'm too lazy to switch over. Quick thoughts:

A great free plan with 2k subscribers
Satisfactory deliverability
Really user-friendly
Subpar tracking and automations
Can't easily "tag" subscribers, which means you'll be double counting subscribers for multiple lists

I've also given Mailerlite a spin:

1k free subscribers with great tagging system
Fantastic, user-friendly automation — I can follow up on certain people who've clicked a certain link and go up to them like "heLLO I think you'd like a glass of lemonade"
Send rich text emails like you're just chatting with friends. WHICH I LOVE.
Many features removed from the free plan earlier this year
I had deliverability issues in the three months or so that I used it.

Eventually the spam mushrooms started creeping back onto me and my list grew too big for their free plan. So I switched to sender.net last week:

2.5k free subscribers
Good tagging and automation
Because I'm super picky with templates, I wrote all my own emails with HTML, so if you're completely new to coding, make sure you're comfy with their templates.
(Coding is something I talk about in a future post! sign up for updates here)
I did encounter some technical issues here and there but their live chat support is really excellent.
Basically 83% the features I need? For free?? For more subscribers???

Another option is sendinblue, which has unlimited subscribers, but only lets you send 300 emails a day on the free plan.

Explore options before leaping on the generic train, okay? Okay, teacups!

3. Don't use embedded sign-ups.

Use a page on your own website. Don't embed in your blog posts. Don't use a landing page by your email provider. Don't use a third-party form.

Because you might want to tweak your signup, and the changes might not translate to your embedded form. Because you might want to change providers, and now all your forms in old blog posts are wrong. Because the third-party form provider might vanish, and your links are now dead. Yes, I learned these the HARD way.

Plus, I hate those Captchas! Maybe I'm secretly a robot, but I always get them wrong and it's torture to sign up for anything, which makes me not sign up. Using your own landing pages gives you the option to avoid them. (I've never noticed a particular uptick in bot signups when they're removed.)

If you don't know how to set up landing pages, I will teach you that in a future post (stay updated here). But for now, set up a redirect from a page on your own website to a landing page of your email provider, or embed the sign-up in a static page and send people there.

When you level up and want to make changes, it will be much easier to tweak your own page!

... and yes ... I am pointing you to mailchimp's signup form for tutorial updates ... because if I changed it now, I'd have way too many dead links to fix. DO AS I SAY not as I do.

4. Reconsider using tips or tutorials to make people sign up.

—uh, Alyssa, YOU ARE DOING THIS.

You see, these rules are like writing rules, where if you know why they exist, you're free to break them. I'm not the boss of you. You're your own boss. Or you're an underemployed millennial who wants to dismantle capitalism?? Sign me up for THAT mailing list.

Anyways, my email list for future blogging/website tips? It's the first list I started, and the one with the worst engagement. I don't expect to sell anything from it. I just want to make sure the few people who are still reading get to see my new content. I'm so benevolent. *hides Slytherin scarf*

Authors: The reason you shouldn't use "how-to" posts to entice people to join your list is that you're likely giving advice on how to write to other writers, when the people you actually want on your list are people who think your book idea sounds cool and will want a copy 30000 years later, when revisions are finally done. I won't lie, tutorials can create amazing sign-up numbers, but think about who are the right subscribers for your newsletter! Tutorial posts are a common suggestion for mailing list beginners, so I just wanted to say my piece against them for fiction writers building their platform.

Book bloggers: Tutorial posts are an AMAZING way to connect with other bloggers and I do love to do that!! I'll shake all the hands like an octopus! But if you want your audience to be comprised of a wider audience of non-blogging readers, then you might want to think of other content ideas.

5. Don't act like a company sending me discount codes I'll never use.

I personally love author newsletters because they're an intimate way to talk with my closest supporters. I say hello teacups I need your help to choose a title because I'm a silly indecisive goose. I say they say dystopian is dead, my book is going to prove them wrong.

So I don't get it when author newsletters have weird block formats and speak in the third person and paste their blurb in wholesale! I mean, nothing against these authors, it's just not my style. That's up to you!

(On the other hand, I'm personally not a fan of lifestyle-ish author newsletters. I like to talk books more! But that might be because I'm still a book blogger at heart, so eat your chocolate however you want. YMMV.)

6. Don't do it just because they all say you should.

Mailing lists actually can take a lot of time, and mistakes, and effort. It's definitely not "build it and they will come" or "passive income". If someone's mailing list reached 10K in 2 days, it's probably because they were already influential.

Start a mailing list if you have the time wouldn't mind modest results. It's great, but I don't feel like it's a must.

So if you find all this confusing, it's fine to ... not.

Alyssa, of course I find this confusing! You keep telling me what NOT to do, and it's turning me into a porcupine in headlights! Tell me something TO DO.

7. Convert your social media followers to email friends.

You know what? I'll be real. Social media is still going to reach more people. Emails aren't going to go viral!

So find a way to turn your social media reach into an email list. Here's why — social media is owned by corporations who like algorithms. Ugh. You can't control them, or their decisions when they decide to wipe you off the map but keep the racists around.

PSA. A misconception about mailing lists: A lot of people just shout "no algorithm!" six times as though this is a ritual to ward off the demons of social media.

Well, first of all, there is an algorithm: email spam filters, your service providers' terms of service, and also your readers' minds. On a good day my email list may get 50%-70% open rates. My smol Instagram account's posts might be seen by 50% of my followers and it might also get seen by four times as many non-followers. Don't leap on the hype train just for the demon rituals!

But you won't lose the subscribers because of a social network's say-so ... take your list with you unless they unsubscribe.

I've tried several modes of tweets / social media posts to convert followers to email friends, and here's my experience:

does NOT work: "Want to find out 10 reasons romance is dead? get the deets here: [SIGNUP LINK]"

This is the classic "lead magnet" style that lots of other email list tutorials will suggest, to entice them with some sort of secret or benefit or incantation. My personal results are dismal. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I'm not doing it anymore!

sometimes works: "I just started a newsletter, please join here! [SIGNUP LINK]"

This isn't fancy, but it will get your closest followers to join you. I've literally signed up because an author I liked said "I will feel bad if this doesn't work". The guilt trip annoyed me, but it worked!

If nothing else, here's your takeaway from this post: a mailing list is not going to inherently net you new fans like an ad. For me, I use it to continue to engage with people who already like what I'm doing! That's why giving a blunt invitation is better than writing up clickbaity ~content upgrades~ to lure people in.

best for me: "Friends, my latest newsletter drops Saturday. I'm talking about [TWO TO THREE SPECIFIC THINGS]. Join here! [SIGNUP LINK]"

I'm upfront about what my intentions are, I show them I'm super cool and they should do as I say, and I give them a gentle time limit. It's like the Inigo Montoya method of networking ...

maybe works?? "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to join my murder newsletter."

and that's a wrap! If you'd like to see how I do my authorly newsletters after learning from 2 years of mistakes, here's the link. ... I will feel bad if this doesn't work? Ha!

Any questions about mailing lists? Comment below! Oh, and leave a link to your newsletter + join up with other people's too — there's no better way to learn about newsletters than observing how others do it!

.S. My next post is about how to start a stylish book blog or author website for FREEEEEE. If you want to stay updated on that, head here.

Looking to promote to book lovers? My giveaways are promoted to around 1.5K dedicated newsletter readers, may reach over 30K impressions on Twitter and a potential audience of over 50K on Instagram. Email me to sponsor one now or find out more!

GIVEAWAY: Spin The Dawn by Elizabeth Lim // mulan adventure and celestial dresses

2019-03-26T22:07:00.002+08:00

Welcome, book fiends! Gather round our bubbling cauldron of sakura potion -- it's time for a brand new giveaway!

Today, we're giving away a signed copy of SPIN THE DAWN by Elizabeth Lim, pitched as Project Runway x Mulan. yES PLEASE. In order to become the imperial tailor, Maia Tamarin embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Aren't you enchanted just by that summary? This is a super hyped book and I'm very lucky to have read an ARC, so huge thank you to Elizabeth for giving away a signed copy. If you enjoy magical adventures and slow burn romance, be sure to join this giveaway!

To enter the giveaway, simply type your email address below! This means joining my takeout army for our little regular giveaways, so I will send you emails about bonus entries, who won, and more giveaway information. reload the page if this form isn't visible.
Look at this gorgeous aesthetic, illustrated by Tran Nguyen — can't you just feel the exciting adventure that Maia embarks on!

Once you've entered, you'll receive an email with details on how to redeem bonus entries—so go and check it now! Because you entered, right? riiiiiight?

Blurb (buy links here):

Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she'll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There's just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.

Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia's task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.

And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor's reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.

Full review by moi to come.

This giveaway will run until June 10th, at which point I shall select a winner and have a new giveaway for everyone else. Yay!

This prize will be shipped internationally.

help i'm a smol marshmallow with no legal knowledge but here goes:

Official details regarding this giveaway: No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Entrants must be 18 or above or have parental/guardian permission. Giveaway, bot, or other suspicious accounts will be removed at organiser's discretion. In holding this giveaway, the organiser does not endorse this book or this publisher. The prize will be a signed copy of Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim, or another substitute prize at organiser's discretion. Winner drawn on June 10th. Entrants' email addresses are collected for the purposes of entry confirmation, notifying winners, providing information regarding bonus entries, and further updates on new giveaways. These details are subject to change.

GIVEAWAY: Descendant of the Crane by Joan He // chinese game of thrones

2019-01-05T20:13:00.000+08:00

Welcome back, booklings! Gather round our fairy ring of maitake mushrooms -- it's time for a brand new giveaway!

Today, we're giving away a preorder of DESCENDANT OF THE CRANE by Joan He, a Chinese-inspired fantasy about the young princess Hesina who must navigate the Imperial Court and commit treason to seek justice for her murdered father.

Plus, the winner will receive a set of exclusive character cards! ngl I'm super jealous of whoever wins.

I'm so lucky that I've already read this book and I can tell you it absolutely lives up to the Game of Thrones comp! If you're looking for a princess/emperor who has real power, a thrilling new take on court politics, a truly unique YA fantasy -- you do NOT want to miss out on this giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed. However, great news — join my latest giveaway here, for another fantastic prize!

Once you've entered, you'll receive an email with details on how to redeem bonus entries—so go and check it now! Because you entered, right? riiiiiight?

Psst, while the winner will get some extremely pretty character cards, I've made some wallpapers to share with EVERYONE.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alyssa 📚 YA fantasy (@hkalyssa) on Feb 1, 2019 at 2:11am PST

Download Hesina's wallpaper: Desktop / phone

Lilian's wallpaper: Desktop / phone

Sanjing's wallpaper: Desktop / phone

Love these wallpapers? Please retweet / like on Instagram, and if you use them, show the world and link your friends back to this post.

Please don't repost these images elsewhere! Especially because credits go to Joan He for the original character art and the quotes, and other art elements were used from Creative Market — Watercolor Dusty Plants by Spasibenko Art and Gold Dust Glitter Effects by Studio Denmark.

Blurb (buy links here):

Princess Hesina of Yan has never embraced the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she suddenly inherits an unstable kingdom. Determined to find the killer, Hesina seeks the wisdom of a soothsayer—a treason punishable by death ever since Yan outlawed magic centuries ago.

Using the information illicitly provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust even her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant, alluring investigator...and a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of her kingdom at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?

A Chinese fantasy perfect for fans of Game of Thrones.

Please note that Joan is sponsoring this preorder, but I reached out to her after already deciding to feature DESCENDANT OF THE CRANE because I'm just that excited for this book!

This giveaway will run until March 23rd, at which point I shall select a winner and have a new giveaway for everyone else. Yay!

This prize will be shipped by The Book Depository or Wordery. If a substitute shipping method cannot be found, we may send you another substitute prize instead.

GIVEAWAY: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao // a bewitching villain protagonist + court intrigue

2018-10-16T20:30:00.000+08:00

Welcome back, booklings! Gather round our fairy ring of maitake mushrooms -- it's time for a brand new giveaway!

Today, we're giving away a copy of Forest of A Thousand Lanterns by Julie C Dao, about a young girl Xifeng who will stop at nothing to win the emperor's favour and become the empress ... this budding sorceress will even eat her enemies' hearts. What a chilling villain origin story!

The paperback of FOTL was released in September, and the sequel Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix will be released on November 6! So this is a great time to join the giveaway.

This giveaway is now closed. However, great news — join my latest giveaway here, for another fantastic prize!

Once you've entered, you'll receive an email with details on how to redeem bonus entries—so go and check it now! Because you entered, right? riiiiiight?

This giveaway is kindly sponsored by Rae @ A New Look on Books:

Need help with your book manuscript? Look no further! Freelance editor, Raven Eckman, offers affordable beta-reading and developmental editing packages, and is open for business. Email rae.anewlookonbooks@gmail.com for her resume, package details, and editing samples. Check out https://www.anewlookonbooks.com for client testimonies and more. It's time to get that manuscript ready to query or publish.

Full blurb (buy links here):

Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her.

Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng’s majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high? Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins — sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute.

Set in an East Asian-inspired fantasy world filled with both breathtaking pain and beauty, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns possesses all the hallmarks of masterful fantasy: dazzling magic, heartbreaking romance, and a world that hangs in the balance.

This prize will be shipped by The Book Depository. If you live somewhere TBD doesn't ship and win this giveaway, I will find a substitute shipping method or a substitute prize.

This giveaway will run until December 10th, at which point I shall select a winner and have a new giveaway for everyone else. Yay!

GIVEAWAY: Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan // Asian-inspired fantasy with f/f romance

2018-08-25T20:00:00.000+08:00

Welcome back, booklings! Gather round our fairy ring of maitake mushrooms -- it's time for a brand new giveaway!

Today, I'm giving away a preorder of Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan, about a village girl Lei who is taken to serve in the Demon King's court and ends up in a forbidden romance.

"That's so nice of--" NO. I am giving this away because I still have to wait TWO WHOLE MONTHS to get my hands on a copy, and if I must suffer, I shall throw this book in your faces so you can ALL suffer with me. MUAHAHA. #nicestdevil

This giveaway is now closed. However, great news — join my latest giveaway here, for another fantastic prize!

Once you've entered, you'll receive an email with details on how to redeem bonus entries—so go and check it now! Because you entered, right? riiiiiight?

Full blurb (buy links here):

Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It’s the highest honor they could hope for…and the most cruel.

But this year, there’s a ninth girl. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire.

In this lush fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards still haunts her. Now, the guards are back, and this time it’s Lei they’re after–the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king’s interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but stifling palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit being a king’s consort. But Lei isn’t content to watch her fate consume her. Instead, she does the unthinkable–she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the very foundation of Ikhara, and Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide just how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.

This prize will be shipped by The Book Depository. If you live somewhere TBD doesn't ship and win this giveaway, I will find a substitute shipping method or a substitute prize.

This giveaway will run until October 15th, at which point I shall select a winner and have a new giveaway for everyone else. Yay!

GIVEAWAY: Reflection (A Twisted Tale) by Elizabeth Lim // mulan in the underworld!

2018-02-25T18:35:00.000+08:00

Welcome back, booklings! Gather round our fairy ring of maitake* mushrooms -- it's my birthdayyyyy on Tuesday and my first giveaway of the year!

*the best mushrooms, go away portobello.

This giveaway is now closed. However, great news — join my latest giveaway here, for another fantastic prize!

---

Today, I'm giving away an absolutely gorgeous hardcover of Reflection: A Twisted Tale, which is the story of Mulan if she went to the underworld to save Shang. Regular readers will know that I never stop talking about Mulan, and I'm so excited for this book!

GUYS, look what I just got in the mail! I can't get over how beautiful it is 😍😍😍 Thank you so much @DisneyHyperion! Can't believe REFLECTION comes out in a month 💖🌸🗡 pic.twitter.com/kRC4ykFnH2
— Elizabeth Lim (@LizLim) February 23, 2018

Full blurb (buy links here):

What if Mulan had to travel to the Underworld?

When Captain Shang is mortally wounded by Shan Yu in battle, Mulan must travel to the Underworld, Diyu, in order to save him from certain death. But King Yama, the ruler of Diyu, is not willing to give Shang up easily. With the help of Shang's great lion guardian ShiShi, Mulan must traverse Diyu to find Shang's spirit, face harrowing obstacles, and leave by sunrise--or become King Yama's prisoner forever. Moreover, Mulan is still disguised as the soldier called Ping, wrestling with the decision to reveal her true identity to her closest friend. Will Mulan be able to save Shang before it's too late? Will he ever be able to trust her again? Or will she lose him--and be lost in the Underworld--forever?

This giveaway is open wherever The Book Depository or Wordery ships. Friends in other places, feel free to leave a comment below to suggest other retailers that work for you -- and in any case, I'll send the winner another bookish gift as a substitute if shipping is an issue.

This giveaway will run until May 15th, at which point I shall select a winner and have a new giveaway for everyone else. Yay!

UPDATE: I have an agent!! + blog changes!

2018-01-11T08:05:00.000+08:00

HELLO DENIZENS. Your resident writer has news to announce, gather around with hot chocolate and takeout ramen!

I'm so so so thrilled to announce that I have signed with the amazing Kiana Nguyen at Donald Maass Literary Agency!

A little about my manuscript:

When sixteen-year-old thief Mo stabs a runaway witch-princess, she’s cursed to wear her face. To break the curse, Mo braves the unfamiliar world of witchcraft where she must survive the assassin hunting the princess—and equally dangerous, her own desire for power.

Also featuring: demons, a curse, magical food, Chinese folklore, and a villain origin story buried somewhere.

Stay updated here!

And check out our Twitter announcements, too!

I am literally beyond thrilled to announce that I've signed my first client @HKAlyssa 🌸✨She wrote a KILLER YA fantasy that blends Swan Lake with Mulan. It's dark, it's queer, and oh so delicious! Welcome to the DMLA team, Alyssa 💜
— Kiki Nguyen (@kianangu) January 10, 2018

TWITTER. I am overjoyed to announce that I'm now represented by the amazing @kianangu at Donald Maass Literary Agency!! #PitchWars

full blog post w/ more about my Mulan + Swan Lake retelling: https://t.co/sqJBioYmzS
— Alyssa Carlier ♠️ 愛玲 (@HKAlyssa) January 11, 2018

GIVEAWAY: The Devil Orders Takeout is Baaaaack!

2017-06-11T21:07:00.001+08:00

HELLO BOOKLINGS.

Yes, I am indeed off hiatus! And you know, let's not mince words and get right to the fun stuff: I'm relaunching with this international giveaway.

This giveaway is now closed. However, great news — join my latest giveaway here, for another fantastic prize!

---

Even though I'm off hiatus, you might not see me post too much from this blog!

Don't worry, though, for the next month I've written up several guest posts that will pop up around the blookunity. (I'll list them on this post as they go live, so you'll see them when you come back to redeem more giveaway entries!)

Guest posts:

(Thanks so much to these lovely bloggers for helping out with my relaunch!)

As for after that ... I've got some special plans, which I'll share with my takeout army shortly. So join us for the latest updates on this blog's destiny *drumroll*

I'm going to keep this short — join that giveaway, and watch this space!

Say hello in the comments section! And leave all your blog links too, I'm so terribly behind on bloggish news.

Snazzy Snippets: I HATH RETURNED

2016-07-01T20:30:00.001+08:00

BLOOKUNITY I HAVE RETURNED FROM MY HIATUS. With more Mulan + Swan Lake snippets.

(I know I still haven't read all of your snippets last time, but I'll get to them ASAP. My bad, school is killing me.)

Snazzy Snippets is a bimonthly link-up I co-host with Emily @ Loony Literate. For those who weren't around last time:

It’s an opportunity for writers! Every two months, we post a prompt or question for you to share a snippet of fewer than 500 words. It’s designed to let you have fun, analyse your work on a smaller level, or just write something to join in.

If you’re not a writer, or aren’t working on anything, don’t go back up the rabbit hole just yet. Read everyone’s wonderful snippets on the linky!

Still have questions? Snazzy Snippets has its own page on the blog, with FAQs and more. Take a look!

Reminder that this isn't just for novels! The prompts were designed with novels in mind, but most are also applicable to short stories, poetry, anything.

Without further ado, the prompts (themed around the past):

A snippet where characters consider their backstory
or

A snippet featuring a child (i.e. a freebie for you YA and MG writers)
or

A snippet from something you wrote more than 2 years ago

Remember to include your post URL in the linky! I'll be sure to visit ALL your snazzy snippets.

For those who are new, I'll be sharing snippets from my WIP, a Mulan + Swan Lake retelling. It includes monsters and magic, grave robbers, deaf assassin-witches, witchy rival-lover dynamics, and lots of desserts. I like to imagine it as VICIOUS meets THE NIGHT CIRCUS.

1. A snippet where characters consider their backstory

“Don’t lecture me, huangfu, I might actually remember your wisdom.”

Her father sighed and began brushing the sugar strands on the seat into the palm of his soft hands. “I tried to motivate a little girl who skinned her knee running from a street-performer’s fire-spell. Back then you were afraid of magic. Now I am.”

For half a year, her royal mother spent the two hours before midnight to read Mak the most ancient magical texts, and two hours after to let Mak touch the magic. One morning, instead of her usual nap, Mak snuck out and tried to burn down the vegetable garden. Instead she’d burned out and spent a week in a hospital bed. That was the first and only time her father raised his voice to her royal mother.

Out loud, all Mak said was, “A wonder you had the courage to marry huangmu.”

“Even you fear your royal mother. But you still have the heart to defy her. So why do you hide from Yi?”

Because Yi promised a windstorm in those eyes. Mak could only hold a candle to this sister, and she didn’t know if Yi would snuff it out or set her life ablaze. “My mother and I aren’t competing for the kingdom.”

“Yi doesn’t want to steal your kingdom. She wants to save it.”

This snippet features our second main character, Mak, who is the princess and heir to the empire. However, her position can

When an incredibly talented (and incredibly gorgeous) witch shows up, one can predict the conflict.

More about that in the next snippet. Of more interest here are:

Mak's incredibly fabulous parents. Let me tell you, those two have backstory. Not written down, I mean, but I just know.
Mak learns magic and instantly decides to burn stuff. A girl after my own heart.

Oh, and since I'm getting back into revising this (aiming for mid-July, once I have all school stuff out of the way), I'm now sharing my writing progress every week to anyone who wants to be email friends!

Read weekly snippets of MULAN + SWAN LAKE

I'll start sending them next week, so grab your takeout and hop on the train!

2. A snippet featuring a child

Mak returned his smile and stretched her legs outside the car. “I’ll look up your almanac and charm a pack of tea leaves.”

“Try not to mix it up with your poisons this time.” Her father frowned again and didn’t even protest when Mak took the box of dragonbeard candy. “And Mak—you’re right to be afraid of her. Take care, my daughter.”

“I think I still have the poison left from last time to deal with enemy sisters.” The cold garage air pricked goosebumps on her bare arms, and Mak hugged the candy box closer to her chest.

“And if she becomes your friend? Witchcraft is a fellowship, and you even call her sister.” Her father pressed the button for the shuttle lift to take them back to the palace. “Coastguard or not, you’re competing with her. When your friendship turns sour, it will ruin you. She will ruin you.”

Mak smiled a careful skull’s grin. If ruination came for her, she’d destroy it first. “Then she’d be making demons. What a traitor to the coastguard.”

“Mak,” her father called after her as she stalked out of the lift. “The Huntress is the kind of woman who is made from the fire. You’re a moth dancing in the flames.”

Since this IS a YA retelling, I could have chosen literally any snippet. But here, I think Mak is behaving like a child who thinks she can take care of herself. So basically every child ever.

I included copious amounts of food in this novel (thanks Cait) but I actually managed to make it a device to show character development (?!?!?). I won't reveal all, but suffice it to say Mak talks less about candy/cake and more about ... you'll see. *winks*

(There's also a high-flying all-rounded A+ girl who loves coffee. Three guesses why.)

Well ... two guesses left.

This snippet, though, shows just how melodramatic and unrealistic Mak can be. As I said: after my own heart.

3. A snippet from something I wrote more than 2 years ago

“They only remember Mulan fought a war. They forget she weaved at her window, that she asked the emperor for a horse to take her back, that when she returned she donned face paint and gowns. They remember Mulan tried to be a man, and forget when she was a woman.” — from planning notes of this WIP

For those of you who are unaware, I love retelling Mulan. This retelling is so very much about femininity. I looked through my musings back from when I translated the original ballad of Mulan and found this gem.

I don't think it needs further comment, really, except that this WIP is all about femininity and China and mis-identity.

Also witches. Don't forget the witches and demons. Sound cool? Join me as I ignore schoolwork and dash through revisions:

Yes, weekly snippets about witches and demons sound FABULOUS

Alternatively, join my takeout army and read the spinoff short story about a deaf assassin-witch conquering cities and critiquing tea!

You may have noticed, by the way, that I no longer use the title Witches Black & Silver to refer to this WIP. That's because I've thought of a new, better name — and it's nearly quoted in one of the snippets. Guessing time, blookunity!

Which is your favourite snippet? What do you think the WIP's new title is? And how is your own writing coming along?

Twitter-sized takeout:

Snazzy Snippets: Writers, let's get vulnerable + spin-off from Mulan + Swan Lake retelling!

2016-05-01T20:30:00.000+08:00

SOOOOO. How did everyone do with Camp NaNoWriMo? Or other April-y writerly pursuits? Snazzy Snippets is baaaack for writers to share their snippets!

Snazzy Snippets is a bimonthly link-up I co-host with Emily @ Loony Literate. For those who weren't around last time:

It’s an opportunity for writers! Every two months, we post a prompt or question for you to share a snippet of fewer than 500 words. It’s designed to let you have fun, analyse your work on a smaller level, or just write something to join in.

If you’re not a writer, or aren’t working on anything, don’t go back up the rabbit hole just yet. Read everyone’s wonderful snippets on the linky!

Still have questions? Snazzy Snippets has its own page on the blog, with FAQs and more. Take a look!

Reminder that this isn't just for novels! The prompts were designed with novels in mind, but most are also applicable to short stories, poetry, anything. I'm sharing a short story snippet myself this time!

Without further ado, the prompts:

A snippet that was difficult to write (define 'difficult' as you like!)
or

A snippet you had a lot of fun writing
or

A snippet you plan to delete/significantly revise

Remember to include your post URL in the linky! I'll be sure to visit ALL your snazzy snippets.

2. A snippet you had a lot of fun writing

Right now, the Huntress had idiots to kill.

She pointed a finger at the chair she’d been tied to. Orange-red flames exploded around it, then she sent it flying into two of the soldiers. One, two.

Then someone fired his rifle and knocked the breath out of the Huntress. The bullet turned the silver embroidery at her shoulder red.

The Huntress smiled. The magic burned, yes, but so did she.

Tossing aside the remains of her stick, she gathered the magic to her. A heat wave, buffeting her face, curling in her palms, roaring in her ears—

(secret: magic echoed in her ears, and the Huntress didn’t know what to make of it.)

Three four five were summarily tossed out the window.

The last one, with a colonel’s rank bars, gripped his knives too tightly. He crouched between the Huntress and the Idiot, his lips pulled into a grim line.

The Huntress half-turned away to sip at the tea again. The colonel rushed in, his knives flashing, and the Huntress smashed the teacup on his head.

Waste of good porcelain, she thought mournfully as the tea swirled together with the blood. “I hate pu’er tea,” she growled.

This snippet is from murder with teacups or just teacups, a short story starring the Huntress, a non-POV major character in the Mulan + Swan Lake retelling. The Huntress is a deaf assassin-witch who conquers cities and critiques tea.

The entire short story came from the idea of a teacup as a murder weapon, and a snarky one-liner commenting on the tea afterwards. Yes, I wrote it after watching Spectre. teacups is pretty James-Bond-inspired as a whole, but more like fem!James Bond in China.

Hey, they took him to space once, it's not that preposterous.

Be the first* to read the short story with teacup murder

*I lie. Shout-out to Cait @ Paper Fury for looking over the first draft for me! You're the most benevolent blogging queen. ~~(Also the only one.)~~

1. A snippet that was difficult to write [first draft warning, y'all]

Mo knelt by the body. Mo tugged off her white jade earrings, stained with a bit of blood that looked black in the light. Silver glinting at the throat. A locket, in the shape of a wing, rusted silver. Mo lifted the head to tug off the locket.

1. long fingers with silver nails, very pale lips, [more monochrome]

2. dying witch.

3. dying was not dead.

4. witch = danger and death [and so on].

5. it wasn’t murder if they were dying

Conclusion: Mo slipped her knife between the witch’s ribs.

Her hands were shaking when she took the knife back out. Shaking too much, in fact, to continue tonight. She rearranged the witch-corpse and dragged her clasped hands to cover the wound.

“Sorry,” she murmured, putting a hand over the clasped hands. She’d pray but what prayers could she say when no gods were listening anymore?

A little context: recently an episode of the 100 aired. I don't watch the show, but as I understand it, a lesbian character died and the media began to reconsider the death of LGBT+ characters. Which is fabulous and necessary.

But guess what this person did in the first chapter of her WIP.

After talking with some fabulous people and reading soooooo many Tumblr posts about the issue, I rethought this scene. And rethought it again. I seriously considered setting this WIP aside for later.

As it's one of my extracurricular activities, I do need to finish it to graduate. So I reframed the scene and tried again. There's more spoiler-y context to it,

Another interesting point is that in the initial concept, Mo was five vicious feet of murder and mayhem. Somehow she became a girl who thinks all the vicious things and does none of them. So far, I'm liking this change.

3. A snippet you plan to delete/significantly revise

the tiger’s paws were on her throat now, and she choked—

no stop air moonlight, moonlight, and every breath broke another bone monster run there was blood under her nails, blood pounding through her brain run where? home’s gone drowning from one of the eight oceans she carried in her ribcage you have found a new home, Yi, but the monsters—

No, she didn’t faint. She just executed a strategic retreat with no backup plan.

I actually like this snippet very much. We don't get inside the Huntress' head a lot in the WIP, but as we can see in the short story, it's a rather conflicted place. More details, sadly, would be spoilers.

The actual thing that needs changing are the monsters. While they haven't changed that much from the original concept, I realise that they conform more closely in Chinese to the term 妖怪, which I feel demon is a more accurate translation of.

It's sad to lose the monsters-and-magic alliteration, though.

But I really do adore this snippet, especially the last line. It's so snarky and unlike the Huntress that we see in the WIP, who's been through a lot more. Enjoy it while you can, world:

Read the short story with witches, snark, and teacups instead of vodka martinis

Which is your favourite snippet? What's your favourite atypical murder weapon aside from teacups (and books)? And do I use too many italics?!? (hint: no such thing.)

Twitter-sized takeout:

11 Super Common Villain Tropes as Pokemon Moves! | Should book villains use these?

2016-04-23T20:30:00.001+08:00

Welcome, everyone, to the fabulous NEFARIOUS TALES, a villain event organised by Mishma! You're in the right place if you love villains and morally ambiguous characters in general. Today I'm covering 11 common villain tropes ... as Pokemon moves.

Wait, what? Alyssa, how are villain tropes and Pokemon moves related?

First, what are villain tropes?

Tropes are easily recognisable story elements, such as heroes, damsels in distress, and so on. Villain tropes are the tropes that, well, relate to villains, such as the chessmaster, the villain with good intentions, and so on.

(If you love villains, you might also like my previous post on the 7 types of villain deaths.)

For those with no childhood, Pokemon are a very, very, very large group of fictional wildlife that fight each other. Pokemon moves are the specific kinds of attacks that these wildlife use.

This post operates on the assumption that villain = antagonist = generally unsavoury. Some of these, of course, apply equally well to anti-villains or even anti-heroes.

11 super common villain tropes + examples:

1. Evil Cackle

This is one of the most "I'm the Villain" signs. In almost every story, there's a point when the villain has (nearly) succeeded. It's time to celebrate with tea and takeout and terrifying laughter!

Often, this cackle precedes a beatdown by the protagonists:

20. Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly. (Evil Overlord List)

Type: Psychic.
Effect: May be humiliating to more self-conscious protagonists. More often exasperates protagonists (and readers!) because of how clichéd it is. I kinda dislike it in everything except the most classic video games. Like, I don't know, Pokemon? *shrugs*

2. Acid Monologue

It often goes with the evil cackle. The villain has succeeded! They've taken over the world! All the takeout is theirs! Mwahahaha!

Now is clearly the perfect time to lord it over the helpless protagonists and/or explain the entire evil plan. After the monologue, failure of said evil plan is almost inevitable.

Type: Poison
Effect: May make you feel good for 0.4 seconds and paralyse the protagonists for 0.25 seconds. May also give them the information needed to utterly destroy you.

However, I do enjoy it when these monologues start off gloat-y and end up revealing the villain's less evil motivations. Morally complex villains FTW!

3. Random Wrath

This villain is a loose cannon. He's just evil for the sake of it! They will for no apparent reason steal children's cake, kick random kittens down wells, and shoot their trusted lieutenant for something that is not his fault and/or plot convenience. They have a terrible reputation and their allies tremble in fear.

Type: Dark
Effect: Strikes fear into the hearts of your enemies. May also give them the resolve to fight and defeat you. I like my villains clever, not just ruthless.

4. Minion Attack

Said some wise literature person, "Everyone likes to root for the underdog." (I'm actually legit, but I cannot find my notes for that lit class, so take my word for it, okay? OKAY.)

Therefore, while the protagonists may only be the hero and his plucky sidekicks, the villain often has armies at his disposal. Many villains will deploy these minions to vastly outnumber the protagonists ... because "we have resources".

The consequences are either (a) their troops turning on them or (b) the protagonists succeeding despite all odds.

Type: Fighting
Effect: Unfortunately, minions never seem to leave a real scratch on the protagonists. (Although they may provide some comic relief to the novel.) Minions are seriously ineffective. The only way to make it worse would be to send out your minions and then say "Leave him to ME!"

5. Shadow Sneer

Unlike the evil cackle, this is when villains appear all simpering in front of the protagonists, hiding their world domination plans with good manners and hot chocolate. Bonus points if the villain-in-hiding steeples their fingers.

I actually adore it when villains in disguise act the hero's allies. But I'm less on board with it when the book then shows me their SECRET smile and tell me, "this guy is SECRETLY evil."

Type: Ghost
Effect: May confuse your opponent and cause them to hurt themselves. Recoil damage is also caused to the Fourth Wall.

6. Royal Disdain

Off with their head! Let them eat cake!

As explained above, we tend to root for the underdogs. So powerful royal figures are the domain of many villains instead. Some monarchs may slip into Random Wrath as explained above. Others might simply not care about the peasants they trample on.

Type: Dragon
Effect: Makes for dramatic entrances. That said, that's all it really does. Most attempts to destroy the protagonist via a casual royal command don't work. (When it succeeds, though, you can bet I'll be on board for that.)

Chances are, said villain will lose their royal authority fairly soon ... unless you happen to be reading somewhat accurate historical fiction, where there's a decent chance the "villains" make it out.

7. Kiss n' Kill

There are two sides to this. First, evil overlords tend to keep around a harem (or at least a very attractive consort). Unfortunately, villains are also paranoid, so they also tend to kill off their consorts, if they're secondary/tertiary characters, quite liberally. Look, they're evil!

That said, I genuinely don't like treating love interests as disposable plot objects.

But you know what is cool? When villains try this on less savvy protagonists and distract them to carry out their schemes. And maybe even fall for the protagonist for real.

You know what is even cooler? Savvy heroes trying it on villains.

Type: Psychic
Effect: Causes confusion to the opponent, as well as to the reader. Also muddles up feelings and murder and basically flailing all around.

8. Backstab

Yeah, that image really says it all. But y'know, villains might not be able to do everything alone. And their allies often don't have moral compunctions. So a great deal of stabbing happens within the enemy camp.

I adore this trope and it's one of my favourite ways for a villain to go out as well.

Type: Steel
Effect: Creates a NEW villain for the protagonists to fight. *happydance* Unfortunately, it does very little actual harm to the protagonists.

9. Crimson Wash

While I hold the best entrance is having a signature villain song (Imperial March for the win!), books don't play music. While we wait for this momentary oversight to be corrected, giving villains a signature colour is the next best bet.

So when the villain enters and/or takes over, a shift in colour can instantly signify that victory. Red may not always be the villain colour of choice, although ... *looks around blog* Hmmm

Type: Psychic
Effect: Creates fabulous tension + atmosphere—colours are one of my favourite literary elements. However, not very effective for anti-villains or disguised villains, for obvious reasons.

10. Evil Scar

While protagonists may have the occasional scar to show their bravery on the battlefield or somesuch, many villains like the Joker or Scar (like, obviously) have evil-looking scars. Sometimes it's even serious enough that the villain is down an arm or half a face or an eye.

Type: Normal
Effect: Handy label for a villainous appearance. But personally, I feel this trope could be very problematic in propagating ideals of beauty and/or ableist ideas, so I'm a little dubious unless it's well justified.

11. Thousand Stories

I've talked about villains and the potential problem about their troubled backstories, but villains with complex motivations are still fantastic. Here's why it might just be my favourite trope here:

heartbreak all around
characters being vulnerable
moral ambiguity
just emotions, okay? I might not be able to handle them in real life, but emotions in fiction = the most important

Type: Ground
Effect: Earth-shattering destruction on everything you thought you knew.

Oh, and don't forget to check out everyone else on the Nefarious Tales trail (ahaha, I rhymed):
Sophia @ Bookwyrming Thoughts - Awesome Villain Powers
Nova @ Out of Time - The Darkling Formula

Which of these tropes do you like/dislike? Who's a villain you really love? And comment with a Pokemon move-version of a trope yourself! I will feature the best ones :D

ETA: While the Nefarious Tales giveaway is over, never fear! I'm running another INTERNATIONAL giveaway for a truly fabulous book, perfect for readers who love morally ambiguous stories!

How should you monetise your book blog? Redbubble vs Society6 + 6 case studies + Infographic (CIVIL WAR!)

2016-04-16T20:30:00.000+08:00

More and more book bloggers are monetising their book blog, which is THE COOLEST. One of the more popular options are print-on-demand design shops like Redbubble and Society6. Today, we have 6 fantastic designers here for the CIVIL WAR between the two!

So why are design shops so popular? First off, print-on-demand design shops like Redbubble and Society6 are super easy. In my opinion, they also align better with blog readers, aka other book lovers, more than most ads.

And last of all ... many bloggers have picked up design to make a pretty blog! So it only makes sense to transfer the skills. I think it's super important for book bloggers to be invested in art OTHER than books. It's productive procrastination and helps us keep blogs running!

Looking to promote to book lovers? My giveaways are promoted to 1000+ subscribers and have gotten up to 18K impressions on Twitter. Email me to sponsor one now!

Team Divergent:

Shannelle @ Art of Escapism

1. Thoughts on Society6?

I think that Society6 is awesome because it runs promotions with free worldwide shipping. As a customer, it's really hard to beat that. But I really, really hate how I have to size a different file for each item. I can't just crop a file like I do in Redbubble.

2. Thoughts on Redbubble?

I love how much more user-friendly Redbubble is when it comes to uploading, they have a cool range of products, and their support is really quick too. I love how you can set whatever price you want, for every single product, and their option to download an image that you uploaded yourself is awesome too!

Redbubble only offers discounts, though, but no free shipping. And while sometimes that's manageable, like a journal to China with a shipping fee of $5, which I can actually live with (and no, I have not been staring at my cart with my All the Mysteries of the Universe journal and crying inside a lot). But the fact remains that it's still expensive.

3. Biggest difference between the two?

I see Redbubble more of as truly for the artist. As a whole, it provides proper protection of art, it's easier to upload things on it, and they have a really cool range of products (if you see someone using a Fire-Breathing Bitch-Queen journal in the wild, tell me so I can smother the person with my love), not to mention their very flexible pricing.

Society6's biggest selling point to me, as someone not in the US, is their free shipping for other international buyers. But I personally think that their system is not nice to artists. Unlike Redbubble, I can't put an artist's note, and as someone who puts a lot of thought into each design, I would like to put something and hope people appreciate that. Links to the artist's website are also hidden, so while it does put a spotlight on the art, the artist deserves appreciation too.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: Shannelle's VICIOUS throw pillow as pictured to the right! I mean, did you expect anything else from the diehard Schwab fan? And don't forget to visit Shannelle's Redbubble and Society6 stores!

Cait @ Paper Fury

As our glorious queen, Cait is of course different from the other lovely divergent contributors to this post. Instead of being on Redbubble and Society6, she's on Etsy and Society6.

1. Why did you choose to sell on Etsy? And after that, why did you also join Society6?

I basically picked Etsy because before that I'd been selling via facebook and it is abominable for trying to promote products and not pay for ads. Etsy was the only other internet creature I knew of to trot my origami over to so -- voila! I did!

I've been on Etsy for nearly 2 years now, but I only just signed up for Society6. Firstly, because I've wanted to for a while. So why not try it?! And secondly (most important) I honestly don't think there's ever enough merchandise out there to proclaim the gloriousness of dragons. I am here to fill the need.

2. What are the best features of Etsy and Society6 respectively?

Etsy: You only pay about 3% of your profits to Etsy, so that's marvellous. You basically have a lot of control over your store and if you're a mild control-buzzard like me, then that's glorious.

Society6: Your job is so easy. After you upload the design: BOOM, you are done. You could sell 1 thing or 100 things and you don't have to do a thing. Also no risk of mixing up orders, running out of something, or accidentally crying over your products in rush-season.

3. What are the limitations of these two platforms?

Etsy: People who buy handmade tend to be very picky. And if a customer has a problem, they can leave a nasty review before you even have a chance to fix the problem.

Society6: It definitely boils down to: you don't make very much profit. You definitely have to sell a lot, which can be daunting. Also purchasing the correct licenses for graphics and fonts can be mildly overwhelming.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: On Cait's Etsy, definitely her new bookhook bookmarks! And from her Society6, it shall be her "drinking the tears of my readers" travel mug. I think I'd kill for one of those.

So far an infographic to sum up Society6 vs Redbubble, but keep reading the case studies for details!

Oh yes, blookunity, you should pin that for reference. Just roll your cursor over the infographic!

Team Redbubble:

Eve @ Twist in the Taile

1. Why did you choose Redbubble?

I chose Redbubble because I preferred it as a customer. I’d previously had good experiences buying from it. The pricing and shipping of Society6 seemed quite geared towards the US, and I feel as though it sells more art and illustration. I wanted to sell designs on actual items rather than just art prints!

2. What is the best feature of Redbubble?

It’s extremely easy to set up. You only have to upload designs and set prices! And it’s easy to find your stats too. For someone like me who has very small knowledge of businesses, it’s excellent.

3. What limits you most on Redbubble?

I haven’t yet encountered any major limits (although I haven’t been selling on it all that long). But I think the search system doesn’t work particularly well, and often seems quite random. It can miss out items for a specific combination of search terms even if the keywords are in there.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: Eve's Les Mis vive la revolution notebook and her writing warrior stickers are so cool! Check out her store!

Meleika @ Endless Pages

1. Why did you choose Redbubble?

Redbubble is super easy to use and uploading pictures is super easy. I also chose to open a small shop there because it had no verification fee.

2. What is the best feature of Redbubble?

The best features on Redbubble is the layout of the website. I prefer it way more than Society6. It's also easier to upload your work as you can resize it (zoom in and out and also multiply it) on the website. I can also bulk upload my designs and fanarts!

3. What limits you most on Redbubble?

Redbubble hardly ever has 'free shipping' or specials. This is why I also ended up opening a Society6 store but most of my customers are on Redbubble. They go crazy for the shadow hunter stuff and my tumblr chats.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: Her 'the pen is mightier than the sword' and 'I wish I was reading' notebooks are super snazzy! Check out her store!

Team Society6:

Yani

1. Why did you choose Society6?

There are countless reasons I can think of right now so let's just break them down:

I am in an overwhelming feeling of admiration whenever I visit stores of some great artists in Society6 which resulted to daydreaming of my store & that someday, I would be one of these artists, that people would look up to my works (THAT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE RIGHT NOW BC I'M LAZY AS THAT CAT BESIDE YOU).

Society6 serves their artists in a satisfactory manner. Take this: You are a long boarder and went to a skate park with lots of skate boarders but these skate boarders invited you to join them because you are a boarder. Long and skate boards just differ in sizes but when you use it, it's still skating. No difference, eh? The artists in Society6 have different kinds of works but they are still the same.

Society6 is like the legit site I know for now. There are lots that are booming but I don't know them, yet. And I even don't know how to manage my time with blogging, school and my store, how much more if I open another store? I would go demented!

2. What is the best feature of Society6?

Their profit on art prints! You can name your price. ($$$HINING IN MY EYES). I'm genuinely thankful to Society6 for these profits, it's staggeringly helpful + I don't have to do the work on producing whatever I sell on the store, I only just upload my art and tadahhh! (EXCUSE MY DESIGNS RIGHT NOW FOR THEY ARE A PRODUCT OF HEAVY SCHOOL SCHEDULES). *Hollers.*

3. What limits you most on Society6?

They should have a template for phone cases because I have a problem whenever I upload some typography designs. And, some of my designs are not available in another product even though I already uploaded a design for that particular product.

ALSO! Take note on this, if you haven't noticed: Whenever you upload your designs or view some artists store on S6 using Google Chrome, some of the products are not shown or not "there" when you expect it to be there.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: Her 'mischief managed' art print and her 'home is where my books at' tote bag look FAB. Check out her store!

Bhavya

1. Why did you choose Society6? It seemed easier and nicer to deal with than Redbubble.

2. What is the best feature of Society6? I think the best feature of society6 is that you can pick your profit for the prints. Also, they seem to have sales all the time.

3. What limits you most on Society6? It's a bit annoying to resize images for the different products. A few of the products to have templates but it would be nice to have one for all of them. That way it's easier to figure where to place things so print doesn't look odd/end up where you don't want it to be.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: This iPhone case is so unique. Check out her store!

For those skimmers, here's the infographic towards the right again for your reference.

Personally, while I'm all for monetising book blogs, I feel that the design store market is a little oversaturated, and book bloggers are now gearing up for other ventures like subscription boxes.

There are also some designers who don't really have quality work, but just slap haphazard fonts on random backgrounds. And that's okay — everyone has a learning curve.

But take the time to make quality designs and artwork, and then? Upload everything and "they will come"?

Not quite. Build your reputation in the blookunity (read my super intense detailed guide how), learn how to market your work, and let's rock whatever design store you choose.

Are you Team Redbubble or Team Society6? Do you sell your designs online? Who sells your favourite book merch?

Looking to promote to book lovers? My giveaways are promoted to 1000+ subscribers and have gotten up to 18K impressions on Twitter. Email me to sponsor one now!

I challenge ALL book readers to stop making these 11 mistakes [#bookwormproblems GAME!]

2016-04-09T20:30:00.000+08:00

Okay, unpopular opinion here: BOOK READERS ARE STUPID. *dodges the hurricane of urchins*

I say that as a proud, card-carrying, TBR-ignoring reader. And so I'd like to challenge myself and everyone from the blookunity to STOP. We are so often blinded by our love for books. Let us STOP making these 11 most heinous mistakes.

(In case you haven't picked this up, this is Not a Serious Post. Until the end.)

Play this game (and be honest!) to find out whether you're a hardcore book lover:

(I didn't embed it 'cos it ends up really long, so click here to play it. There's a plot twist.)

The 11 mistakes that all book readers make:

1. We actively seek out heartbreak.

This conversation practically happens to me EVERY DAY:

Friend: You talk about this book a lot. Is it good?
Me: IT RIPPED MY HEART OUT AND SMASHED MY DREAMS
Me: read it
Friend: okay, that sounds fake but okay

Still! Most of the time, the difference between a good book and an AWESOME book is whether I was emotionally traumatised and screamed at the book enough times. After all, we read to vicariously experience adventures, and what better than an adventure of the heart?

If a book is particularly awesome, we might even — gasp — STOP READING for a while. Because nothing can hurt you like the way that last fantastic book hurt you. If you're suffering from these book hangovers, Anissa has a few cures for you!

PS: I strongly believe this is a vicious cycle because if readers later decide to write a book, said book probably aims to break hearts.

2. We feel guilty when our hearts are not torn apart.

Even for fluffy contemporaries (read: Simon Vs), we have FEELS. And even if it's not as dramatic as allllll the characters dying (read: Hamlet), these FEELS can hurt our fangirl heart, especially if they lead to headcanons and fan edits and just skjldfjs—

But sometimes, books DON'T break our hearts and wreck our feels.

One of these books would be The Winner's Crime. I actually loved the ending of The Winner's Curse so much I didn't want to pick Crime up, but everyone was raving and The Winner's Kiss was coming out. But then I DID and I felt so incredibly underwhelmed.

So disappointment + guilt = sad bookworm.

3. We get excited about books with sequels that come out YEARS later.

Vicious by V.E. Schwab (who else, really) has somehow secured the impossible spot of being my favourite book. It was a standalone, which I was on board for, but then APPARENTLY TOR IS PUBLISHING A SEQUEL. Cue fangirling.

And there isn't even a publication date listed on Goodreads. How will I live?

ETA: Vengeful was published in 2018, so good things come to those who wait! Remember, teacups, the best way to get a sequel for a book you love is to actively support a book.

Or — even worse — there is NO SEQUEL YET. Again, I am perfectly on board for standalones, but some books are clearly first books in a series but somehow the series doesn't exist? *pterodactyl screech*

Personal pet peeve: first books that aren't also standalones. Please make it somewhat possible for the story to just end there. Otherwise, I'll just be annoyed all the way through the second book. Or not read it.

4. Our TBR keeps growing but we decide to reread.

The threat of the TBR has always been a common topic in the blookunity:

Bookworms! Dying by TBR is a team sport. It's true bc
1) pretty graphic
2) @PaperFury would wear it on a T-shirt. pic.twitter.com/f5iUvh9fwe
— Alyssa Carlier (@AlyssaC_HK) February 5, 2016

We've all faced that decision. We have a nice, tall (maybe not so nice) TBR waiting for us to dive into. They all look wonderful, and it's going to be agonisingly hard to pick one, but it's also going to be fantastic to know you have a stack of super intriguing books waiting for you.

So, we apply supreme book reader logic, and reread an old favourite.

And it is so tempting! After all, we're guaranteed to love an old favourite, probably love it even more. Whereas that TBR, tempting as the premise may be ... there is zero guarantee that it will rip out our hearts. And who wants to be a disappointed bookworm instead of an unproductive one?

5. Or we decide to do other bookish things, and our TBR grows in retaliation.

Maybe we FINALLY tackle one book in the TBR, and heavens save us, that book is every bit as wonderful as you'd hoped. You are a broken, shambling reader (as stated in no. 1). No point stopping the illogical decisions!

Instead of slaying the book hangover with a new book from the TBR, let us become obsessed with this new amazing book! Write 2000-long keyboard-smashy reviews on Goodreads and all the retail sites. Seek out all the fanart and headcanons. Heck, make some of those fanworks.

Let's pretend this didn't take me years to edit.

6. Sometimes we forget to eat and instead spend hours on Twitter/Tumblr/Pinterest.

Oh man, social media. On one hand, it lets us ramble about our love for books in (5). On the other, it is a huge time suck. I'm sure I spend hours every week on social media to chat with other book readers.

A Typical Day In Alyssa's House:
Me: spends one hour on Twitter
Me: I need to stop procrastinating.
Me: closes tab
Me: ...
Me: opens new Twitter tab

7. Sometimes we speak with non-bookish humans who ask DIFFICULT questions.

Let's be honest, non-book lovers can be very eccentric. Sure, us in the blookunity might sniff books and cry over fictional characters or take out our ENTIRE BOOKSHELF for one bookstagram.

But non-book lovers have the gall to ask questions like:

"What is your favourite book?"
"Why do you spend so much time reading?"
"Why can't you just let go of [insert dead fictional character]?"
"Why are you eating all the takeout?"

The last one isn't book-related, but clearly no book reader would ask such a strange question.

For MORE things we're tired of hearing, here are things that Pyjama Queen Blogger Cait @ Paper Fury has dictated bookworms (book dragons?) should NEVER have to hear.

8. We read books recommended by our most evil book friends.

Yep, that's me!

9. Sometimes those books keep us awake past 2AM accidentally.

Everyone knows that "I'll just read one chapter before bed" NEVER works. I'll go back to The Winner's Curse again. At the time, I went to bed at 10 PM every schoolday, but that day I brought TWC into bed with me.

I must have said "Just one more chapter" at least a dozen times before I gave up and speed-read the entire book. I finally slept at 1 AM. I had a few bones to pick with it, but let's face it, any book this compelling was an auto 5-star.

(I also just realised that all my bookstagrams in this post are books by Victoria Schwab ... but I've never read her books past midnight. Possibly because I just abandon all daytime activities to read them the moment they appear.)

10. New book with pretty cover eeeeek.

What is better than book mail, I ask you? BOOK MAIL WITH GORGEOUS COVERS. Let's not deny it, we do judge books by their covers. In fact, if it's a particularly pretty book, we'll probably stroke it, sniff it, bury our face in it, or even *gasp* go outside to take 300 bookstagrams of it.

Or maybe — and I won't ask you to confess, but I know it's true for some of you — you've bought books JUST because of the pretty covers.

(I'm sure it'll be the bane of any book buying ban I try to start.)

11. We run out of kidnapped souls to trade for books.

Wait, what? Um, no, that never happens. Nope. Not ever.

(By the way, thinking of writing a new post about evil bookish recipes ... tell me in the comments if you'd like that?)

Now go and do the quiz if you haven't ... because now I'm going to analyse the answers.

To keep anyone from peeking, here's a BONUS MISTAKE: Not joining a book giveaway! Lucky for you, I'm running one here for a truly fabulous book:

(This is an evergreen section, which means it updates automatically with my latest giveaway. Even if you're reading this months later, it's still going!)

All right, spoiler. There's only one result: You love books. Done.

Being a bookworm is not a competition, okay?

The blookunity has its fair share of drama. Over celebrity bloggers, blogging for ARCs, blogging for followers, blogging for stats, blogging for $$$. I've talked about so many #bookwormproblems today but none of them are REAL problems. They're just slightly fanatic things we do as fans. (hahaha, pun.)

The real mistake I'd like to challenge the blookunity to stop is this: Stop competing with each other. Let's start loving books together.

How did you do?!? What is your biggest bookworm problem? Oh, and do you want a list of evil bookish recipes?? Let me know!

In March: I reveal giveaway winners, flailed over ADSOM, and rewrote the witchy WIP!

2016-03-26T20:30:00.000+08:00

WOAH, March has whisked past so quickly, and it's nearly April Fools'! In this month's recap, I reveal my birthday giveaway winners and my start on Mulan + Swan Lake retelling WIP revisions.

I've been blogging:

I talked about how to take gorgeous bookstagrams with a phone + made an infographic that walks you through VSCO

Don't forget to grab my five bookstagram templates — I base my book photos off these!

I bit the bullet and wrote a risky discussion post about whether there can be TOO MUCH diversity in books
Plus my post back in January about 7 types of villain deaths went minorly viral on Pinterest and I expanded it with more detail + a statistical breakdown!

Oh, and birthday giveaway winners! They are ... Abi Pearson, Liz Brooks, and Denise. Congratulations and I've emailed you about the prizes — but for anyone else, I'm running another giveaway here for a truly fabulous book:

I've been reading:

'Tis the season for A Darker Shade of Magic and (NYT bestseller!!!!!) A Gathering of Shadows. Victoria Schwab herself RTed the first photo and I am STILL FLAILING.

On other bookish news, I'm still clearing out the December haul plus a couple more books! I read A GATHERING OF SHADOWS (February-March favourite), Dark Places, The Bureau of Time, Red Rising, and The Winner's Crime.

Reviews upcoming on Goodreads —friend me there for bookish updates, and check me out on Tumblr for more book photography experiments!

PS: I am on Instagram, but I'm posting very very rarely if at all until I graduate from high school — I will however follow back + like/comment on your bookstagrams!

I've been writing:

Oh man, guys, I finally finished draft 3 of MATRYOSHKA, aka Revenge WIP. Bad news, I think I will be rewriting this one extensively, so it'll remain hidden in my laptop for a while.

Good news: I'm currently working on the Witchy WIP, aka Mulan + Swan Lake retelling! Awesome to be back in the comfort of very-rough first drafts:

“I don’t trust dying men.” Desperation was very dangerous.

“At least I’ve lived before I die.” Hung took out a nice watch [describe] and flashed it at her. “If they want magic, fine, but their monsters shouldn’t go where we don’t want them. We fight so that the future generations will be free.”

“We’re all monsters here. They just wear different skins. I’m not afraid of the northern creatures.” Lie. She was terrified of them, [elaborate on this].

Hung shrugged. “At least you’ll be the richest girl in town, and you’ll have fun.”

Mo didn’t need to join the army to find power fun. “I’ll have an adventure in time but I sure as heck am not dying on it.”

In other news, I've delayed Secret Poetry Project and am instead considering Secret Teacup Mini-Project. Informative, I know. RT the below tweet and I'll notify you when you can read it!

Writing a spin-off for my Mulan/Swan Lake retelling. Deaf assassin-witch conquering cities. RT if you want to read? pic.twitter.com/jr286l8QBW
— Alyssa Carlier (@AlyssaC_HK) March 14, 2016

The superlatives:

(Has anyone been to Model United Nations conference where they vote on cutest delegation and next Malala or whatnot? This is the blookunity equivalent.)

The Poet with the Dragons: You should support Topaz Winters on her new Patreon page and get a copy of Half Mystic! I kind of intensely regret going on a book buying ban ... this might seriously make me cave.
Coolest Delivery Girl: FAIRY LOOT, a UK subscription box for YA fantasy lovers by Anissa, had a hugely successful March box!
The Girl with the Best Thinking Cap: Emily @ Loony Literate asks what happens when books have problematic endings.
The Next Elsa: Hannah @ The Road to Hannah shared when to call it quits and let it gooooo on your writing.
The Next Blookunity Yoda: Amanda @ Nellie and Co. shared 5 pieces of blog advice EVERY blogger should know.
The Next Blookunity Obi-Wan: Hawwa @ Hawwa, Etc. shared 4 things that EVERY blogger should accept.
The Craziest Queen: Cait @ Paper Fury has some rather deranged lies that all writers tell themselves.
The College Student: Heather @ Sometimes I'm A Story asks do male voices dominate college reading???
The Funniest Blogger: Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight has some helpful instructions on going into a reading slump.

Link me up to your favourite March post in the blookunity! And thoughts on my A Darker Shade of Magic bookstagrams??

Join my takeout army to receive monthly letters of magic, madness, and murder!

Can there be TOO MUCH diversity in one book? (I say ... maybe.) Also, not the point.

2016-03-19T20:30:00.001+08:00

Okay, okay, don't throw pineapples at me yet. If you know me, I am a huge diversity advocate, but let me discuss for a moment. More than a moment, because this post is super detailed. BUT I want to hear your thoughts afterwards!

ETA August 2018 -- this post was written quite some time ago and my views have evolved since then. I hope to elaborate more on this topic someday, but please view it critically in the time being.

Also, you should join my giveaway for a diverse book. Go ahead and tap "LATEST GIVEAWAY" at the top of your page -- it's my treat!

The other day, I was planning rewrites for my witchy WIP (read some of this Mulan + Swan Lake retelling here.) This is one of my more experimental novels, with structural and narrative techniques and just. everything.

And of course it was diverse! I wanted to include ALL the representation. To plan my rewrites, I went online and started researching. (This is one of my two approaches to writing diversity.)

Then I had a complete mental breakdown because of all the opinions and issues that had to be addressed, and so I asked the question:

Can there be TOO MUCH diversity in a novel? (Pin this so your Pinterest friends can discuss too!)

Was I being an overly ambitious barnacle? Did I try to stuff too much diversity into my takeout??These are some of the answers I came up with when pondering the issue of too much diversity:

1. There is always space for more diversity.

Yes, everyone and their cousin and their delivery guy is talking about #WeNeedDiverseBooks. And I cannot articulate how much fandom has changed these years. Back in 2010, I wasn't in the blookunity, but I lurked in the Harry Potter fandom. Fast forward to 2016, and now I can see how wonderfully diverse everyone's fanfictions, fanart, fancasts, and even the canon adaptations are!

And gosh, most of the books I read then were white male cis narratives, and now? THE OPTIONS SEEM TO BE ENDLESS. So I don't want to ignore the steps that the industry has taken!

But the fact remains that diversity is growing fastest in contemporary, and there's still a lack of it in many other genres like fantasy, or dystopian, or thrillers. And even then ... a lot of the diversity doesn't seem to be enough.

(For more super insightful discussions on diversity, I highly recommend reading Mishma's guest post series on #DiverseReads2016.)

Diverse characters need to be in more central plotlines and in more plotlines in general.

So it didn't make any sense to me initially why I'd want to take away the diverse plotlines. Because (1) I liked them. A LOT. (2) they are necessary to change the narratives available to readers.

Let's be honest, so many of my childhood favourites are books about white people, and even though I enjoyed them perfectly well, I never saw myself in them. It's only in recent years that I've begun to see a more diverse range of books, and guess what? I enjoy diverse books so much more.

Because we read to vicariously live in worlds of dragons and talking bagels and magic takeout — and experiencing something out of the mainstream is part of that. For me, reading books has always been about experiencing more. To quote my favourite pirate, Delilah Bard:

I'd rather die on an adventure than live standing still. — A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (read my review of the sequel)

Considering that I am too frightened of the outside world to leave for more than mini quests to the supermarket, I'm going to live prancing around with a book instead. I joined the blookunity just as #WeNeedDiverseBooks was gaining traction, and this is the most wonderful adventure I've ever taken in my life.

So it seems absolutely ridiculous to actually reduce the amount of diversity in any novel.

2. Intersectional stories are so very important.

When we refer to "lots" of diversity, it's not only a great number of diverse characters — this also includes when one character has multiple diverse experiences. Also called, from Tumblr knowledge, intersectionality.

Let's put it this way: a white deaf person would face certain difficulties from their disability. But a black deaf person would face difficulties from their disability + prejudice because of their race.

Intersectionality is my favourite thing to read and write! Don't get me wrong, it's GREAT if a character is Jewish or trans or suffers from a chronic illness, but it makes me three times more excited if they are all these things at once. Because their story is about 3000 times more interesting and I hear it 3000 times less.

On that note, intersectional narratives are even rarer in YA than diverse narratives, and therefore they are needed for the same reason.

3. Said intersectional stories are realistic.

Most of us don't have only one diverse experience. Our lives are basically many experiences intertwined together, and for many of us, more than of these are diverse. We're not a blank mainstream character + one diverse experience = a diverse character! Yay!

The point of diversity is to be realistic. #WeNeedDiverseBooks is a movement to stop catering only to the privileged, but to everyone in the real world. And intersectional stories exist in the real world, and there is absolutely zero reason to avoid them.

Intersectional narratives are basically diverse narratives taken to the next level. The values towards supporting intersectional narratives — representation, realism, so on — are the same as diverse narratives, and they need to be validated. Too much diversity seems to be a fallacy.

Roll your cursor over the image to tweet or pin it, blookunity!

But does fiction have to be realistic? Is there a point to which realism means poor storytelling, and even the best of intentions to portray diversity mean portraying it poorly?

To what extent does diversity limit creative license? I considered:

4. The subplots for diversity take time away from the main plot.

I'm referring to books where the main plot is not about the diverse experience, aka most non-contemporary diverse books. Which are also genres where diversity is lacking.

Solution 1: Racing through the main plot

Which just makes for a less stellar story in general. And let's be honest, we won't pick up books JUST because they include diverse narratives — there are so many fantastic books with diverse narratives that diversity cannot (and should not be) a selling point.

Diverse stories need to be good stories first, or they won't resonate with the reader and undercuts the effect of diverse representation.

Solution 2: Racing through the diverse subplots

So if the main plot needs to be addressed, the other option is to just kind of mention all the diverse subplots. Look, an asexual person in their natural habitat at the end of page 83! And over there, a wild Pokemon appears! Wait, wrong fandom.

If the diverse subplots are only there for the sake of it ... I'm not convinced. It's totally cool to have diverse tertiary characters, but it's diverse representation, not diverse mention. Diversity needs the centre stage sometimes, and if the programme overruns, that makes it less valuable as representation.

5. The subplots for diversity take time away from each other.

Sure, so we'll take time to explore the diversity ... but diverse characters need character arcs, and if there are multiple diverse experiences, then probably there are multiple character arcs to be developed.

Even if the main plot is not compromised, overstuffing a book with diversity means that the diverse subplots will take time away from each other. And that's going to be unfair to one or both or all of those narratives.

Another interesting thing is that many diversity discussions indicate that a single instance of diversity often doesn't satisfy readers. For example, many people ask diverse writing help Tumblrs what if my villain is agender? what if my f/f romance ends in tragedy? The answer, 99% of the time, is: better include another diverse character/relationship.

While I absolutely think it's feasible to include several diverse narratives in a book — I also think if a book has so many narratives that none of them are properly explored, then as the blookunity so often calls it, the diversity becomes "checking boxes off a list" even if it didn't start off that way.

You'll notice that both of my points are about diverse subplots needing time and attention. Because I believe that diverse representation is important — but plain representation is not enough.

Roll your cursor over the image to tweet or pin it, blookunity!

Why I think there CAN be too much diversity in one book: good diverse representation needs time and space to be developed. (Click to share this discussion to Pinterest!)

A narrative where we say, "Oh, and by the way, there's a black character who experiences racism over there, and a genderqueer character who faces family pressure, and a character who is living with disabilities down the street, and also—" means that we rob these diverse narratives of the time and attention they deserve.

To be clear: I don't think there is enough diversity in the fiction industry. I think there can be a line where so much diversity is in one single book, whatever the author's intentions, it becomes token diversity.

And that's not okay, because diversity in a book isn't just about avoiding stereotypes, but exploring them.

The takeaway from this post? Is not that we need less diversity.

My main point here is that we should stop talking about the "quantity" of diversity. Does it matter if a book includes ALLLLL the diverse experiences? Let's start talking about well-explored diversity instead.

Blookunity! Do you think books can have TOO MUCH diversity? Have you read books with token diversity where you wish more time had been taken to explore said diversity? And oh! Recommend me your favourite diverse book!

Tweet out the takeout!

Join my takeout army to receive monthly letters of magic, madness, and murder!

The Step-by-Step Guide to Awesome Bookstagram (with a phone) + VSCO Walkthrough Infographic!

2016-03-12T20:30:00.000+08:00

Guys, I'm doing it again. This is an intense, 2000-word post to walk you through the entire process of taking a book photography, including why and how to use VSCO, plus five insanely easy bookstagram template styles to get you started right away.

ETA: I'd love to be friends with you on Instagram! I'm at hkalyssa, and I follow back bookish/author accounts.

Let's be honest, every book blogger and their dragon has tried book photography these days. Whether your bookstagrams get 200+ likes every day, or you just tweet a photo of an ARC you're excited to read, book photography is the easiest way to spared the book love.

If you feel like you are terrible at anything artsy, or have no idea how to bookstagram, or want to streamline your bookstagram process ... this post is for you.

Get started with five easy bookstagram templates!

This post is going to walk you through the four steps to take any book photo. Yay!

1. Plan your book photo.

The single most important key to book photography is intention. Sure, you can take a thousand photos and hope one turned out well, but intention will take that success rate WAY higher. Some questions to ask yourself:

(a) Where are you using this photo?

This is important to dimensions! If you're posting it to Instagram, then your photo should be square. On Tumblr, square to tall images work best, and you can even use a set of photos. On Pinterest, images should be tall.

All these factor into how you arrange your book photo.

(b) Why are you taking the photo?

Do you want to show off your shelf? Flaunt some gorgeous swag? Spotlight a single book? These will all affect how you set up the photo to emphasise certain elements.

(c) What themes can you include?

Is the book about parallel universes? Perhaps you could take the picture upside down. Or is it about time travel? Include a pretty pocket watch there!

(d) Choose your aesthetic wisely!

Your book photos are the visual representation of yourself as a book blogger. The bookstagrams that get the most attention aren't just "awesome". They're "airy", "bold", "dreamy" ... all these specific aesthetics help so much.

If you aren't sure what your aesthetic is, you might want to start from developing your book blogger trademark, which is how you appear online 99% of the time.

2. Set up your book photo.

Here are the most important things you need for a book photo:

(a) BOOKS: Obviously!

If you're featuring a single book, then that is of course in the photo. But will you need other books to act as props? Or maybe a shelf to be a background? Will the books be stacked up, spread on the ground, murdering zombies for you? THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.

(b) Props: Like I said, books can already be props. There's no need to be too fancy here — there are so many props that you can find in your own house. Stamps, stickers, stationery, bath salts, cosmetics. Or book swag! You can even make your own props — fold some origami, or use the trick I'll discuss in the next section.

Oh, and check out this list of 50+ props over at Nellie and Co.!

(c) Blu tag: BOOKSTAGRAM LIFESAVER.

Okay, so repeat after me: what they can't see doesn't matter. Blu tag is simply the best for affixing any set-ups that aren't super secure, especially when you're including props and whatnot. Paperbacks also have the nasty habit of the pages curling up, so a little blu tag along the sides will put that right.

You can even be creative with this and shape some models out of blu tag to act as props. You can reshape them when you're done! (I'd show you examples, but my artistic skills = 0.)

(d) Background: Here are four of my favourite backgrounds to use!

White — paper or cardboard doesn't always look natural, which is why I prefer using a blanket or a towel
A quilt — same concept as a white blanket or towel, but with colour or patterns. Do make sure it doesn't clash with your books.
The floor — tiles or wooden planks are already a fantastic texture, so go ahead and put the precious books on the floor!
A shelfie — what could possibly make a photo of a book better? AN ENTIRE SHELF OF BOOKS.

A good background is essential to a flatlay! Here's a photo where I used wrapping paper from Christmas as a background:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alyssa Carlier // YA fantasy (@hkalyssa) on Jan 5, 2019 at 4:16am PST

(e) Lighting

Natural light is actually not always best! Yes, everything looks much brighter, but I've taken perfectly lovely bookstagrams with artificial light.

I do prefer natural light, but let's be honest, we have books to read and blog posts to write and takeout to eat so we can't always time it right. Natural lighting works only in early morning or late afternoons, or on a cloudy day. And in any event, it works best when you're taking the photo outdoors.

Types of natural light that don't really work:

direct light. just, no.
light coming from behind your set up
light coming from one side (e.g. a window)

The best thing about artificial light is that you can control it. I've used my desk lamp to supplement natural light by eliminating shadows.

But don't worry that much about lighting — most of the time it can be fixed with a little editing. More on that below!

3. Take your book photo.

This is the step where there are a lot of guides out there, so I'll keep it brief! But I really recommend Nova @ Out of Time's post because she discusses a lot about angles and such.

Oh, and I use a phone for all my book photography. It's absolutely doable — there will be limitations, but most book photography don't require a super pro camera if you don't want to!

My tips for this step:

Set up your book photo as planned and take multiple shots.
Don't forget to focus on the right part. Change around your focal point as well to try out the effect.
Take your photos with a little extra space around the edge, just so you have more to work with when cropping.
Change your angle. Vantage shots, side shots, shots while you're lying on your side with one leg up in the air ... unique angles immediately set a photo apart.
Change around little things in your book photo.
Check the photos halfway through your mini photoshoot. Do any of them work? Are there things niggling at you?
If you're feeling unsure, take the photo through a VSCO filter or other editing app.
Change around big things in your book photo. Be open to changes.
When you're done, share your photo to your computer! I do this via Pushbullet for single photos or Google Drive/Dropbox for batches of photos.

Woah, feeling a little overwhelmed? This all seems a little abstract? Not to worry, I distilled it down into five basic concepts you can easily start with:

Please email me five easy bookstagram templates!

4. Edit your book photo.

This is where the magic lies, blookunity.

In my opinion, the VSCO editing app is a lifesaver, although I know some people use Snapseed. I love mobile editing apps instead of Photoshop or the like because I can edit my photos right on my phone and think over whether I need a new shot, without transferring back and forth.

By the way, I get zero profit or anything from recommending VSCO. I just happen to really like the app.

VSCO has some fantastic free filters that I take advantage of when I'm in a hurry, but if you want to give your photos a unique edge, you should definitely toggle the settings one by one. Not sure what I mean? Fear not, here's the infographic:

Blookunity! Don't forget to pin this image for future reference — just roll your cursor over the infographic and buttons will appear in the center.

However, if you want some complex edits to really set yourself apart, some more complex tools might be needed. GIMP is my go-to tool because it is nearly as versatile as Photoshop, but completely free!

My favourite complex edits are to play with black-and-white or to stitch photos together. Take a look:

Do not forget to watermark your image!

Not that people will steal the image, but oftentimes it gets pinned somewhere or shared to Facebook without your original link. Plus, a watermark opens up even more options for unique editing.

2-minute watermarking for Macbook users:

For your first time, go to GIMP or other editing software and create your desired watermark as a PNG file with a transparent background. Save it as "WATERMARK".
Open your book photo and watermark png in Preview.
Go to your watermark png window, press command + A, then press command + c.
Go to your book photo window, then press command + v. Your watermark will appear!
To move it around, simply use your mouse to drag the selection around.
Bonus tip: rotate the image by keeping one finger on the trackpad, and moving a second finger in the desired direction. Yay!
Super bonus: click and hold on a corner of your watermark, then give your finger a spin to flip the watermark.

5. Share your book photo. Eat takeout. Yay!

Excited to start? Get your bookstagram templates!

Any extra book photography tips? Which step do you find most difficult? Recommend me your favourite bookstagrammer!

Don't forget: I'd love to be friends with you on Instagram! I'm at hkalyssa, and I follow back bookish/author accounts.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alyssa Carlier // YA fantasy (@hkalyssa) on Mar 25, 2016 at 6:03pm PDT

What Makes a FANTASTIC Sequel? | A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

2016-03-05T20:30:00.002+08:00

Surprise, surprise! I love yet another of Victoria Schwab's books! You are all shocked!

But I intend to be reasonable, because here is another review + discussion mashed into one! (I will try my very very best to avoid spoilers for both AGOS and ADSOM, but if you prefer to go in with zero ideas of what happened, then proceed to the GR page for ADSOM.)

We've all experienced the dreaded sequel-itis ... we love a book. Then, rejoice! A new book is announced! But in addition to overwhelming joy and frantic preorders, there's that feeling of, what if it's not as good as the first one?

Even worse, what if nothing happens in this middle book?

Why A Gathering of Shadows is all I wanted in a sequel:

1. Not a copy of the first book

You know that feeling when you love something, and you're instantly given an identical thing? Logically, you should be overjoyed!

But the bookworm life is not logical, and let's be honest, it's very hard to love a series that's basically the same formula done again, and again, and again.

In AGOS, we're introduced to the Element Games, a competition between Red London's best magicians, and oh my goodness were the duels fantastic. The duels in ADSOM were based on Antari/blood magic, but this was elemental magic taken to its finest and much less life-or-death. The entire plot structure was different but equally fabulous.

I also liked that AGOS was more character-based than plot-based. We see Lila adapting to life in Red London without compromising her own personality, we see Kell navigating his relationship with his foster parents and Rhy, and we see Rhy attempting to live up to his status as the royal heir despite not having magic.

And so many relationships were explored more fully:

Kell & Rhy: oh my goodness, they are the cutest.
Kell & Lila: I admit it, I didn't ship them at all before AGOS ... but Kell makes miracles happen and I am convinced they have some chemistry
Kell & the king and queen: oh, never mind that sound, it was just my heart breaking
Rhy & former lovers: Rhy is the universally shippable sinnamon roll but he is a PRECIOUS cinnamon roll and no one hurt him
Lila & other pirates: Lila looks like she could kill you but is actually a cinnamon roll. *heart eyes*

The characters grew so much in A Gathering of Shadows and were my favourite part of this book. Well, minus the quips. I can't resist a good quip.

Also: lips sealed on character deaths (no spoilers, no spoilers), but in case you're in a mood for spoilery deaths:

Download the stats of villain deaths in popular books

2. Not ignoring the first book

You know that feeling when you love something, and then you get a thing that's supposed to be a follow-up to that but is mostly irrelevant? Nope, me neither.

A sequel isn't just another book set in the same world with the same characters. A sequel is literally a continuation of an already existing story. Dropping all the characters' emotional arcs and baggage and making them walk the same steps kind of ignores what we loved in the first place.

Plus as perfectly kind-hearted bookworms, we love to see characters suffer the consequences of their decisions. While this normally happens within a book, the same applies to a series — even if the ending seemed happy, a sequel is the perfect time to turn it bittersweet.

A Gathering of Shadows picks up four months after ADSOM, but it's not just another story in the four Londons. Neither Lila nor Kell have forgotten their ADSOM adventures or, indeed, each other. The characters are all affected by the events of ADSOM — and I love that no one gets to escape the consequences of their choices, and that so many of their decisions are rooted in what we last saw happen.

And there were so many call backs to book 1! Lila's masquerade costume, the magic enthusiast Ned in Grey London, mentions of the Dane twins, the three London pubs ... you can bet I was grinning every time those came up.

PSA to The Force Awakens: this is how you write a sequel that's not a carbon copy of a successful original while still giving fans a nostalgia kick.

3. Expanding the world

This is especially true for speculative fiction, but a sequel is an opportunity to expand the worldbuilding beyond the basics. I mean, just look at all the Tumblr headcanons — we LOVE to know more details about their fandom.

So it really exasperates

And oh my goodness, A Gathering of Shadows makes me want to go to Red London SO MUCH. The Element Games provided the perfect opportunities for other Red London cities. Other non-Antari magicians. Other members of the royal family and the court. And more magic, of course.

This book's focus was really on Red London, though. Grey London had some new incidents but mostly felt like set-up for book 3. I did love the direction taken with White London — we saw touches here and there, but only what was necessary to drive the plot forward.

And that glimpse of Black London (!!!!)

(I hadn't realised how hard writing a non-spoiler review is.) But I love that the previous balance of the four Londons isn't taken for granted and that the world is as dynamic as the characters or the plot.

4. Developing the main characters

Just as characters shouldn't forget their arcs from the last book, they need NEW arcs in a sequel. Relationships can take on other dimensions (and no, I don't mean romance, there are so many ways to do this — rivalries, guilt, passive aggressiveness ...). Characters who never got to meet last time can meet again.

What impressed me most with AGOS was that not only were the characters confronted by their experiences in the first book, they also confronted their past experiences.

Let's talk about the AGOS characters. I mean:

Lila is SO BADASS. I know, I know, she already was fabulous in ADSOM. But she takes it to the next level. Even though she's new to Red London magic, she has the most creative ideas about it. And she has the best quips. Basically Lila is queen.
I'm actually wondering whether Lila should be referred to as they out-of-universe since Word of God is that Lila is genderfluid? Thoughts, people?
Kell omg. He shows more of his vulnerable side in this book and his brotherly relationship with Rhy actually made me give up my Kell/Rhy ship.
Rhy, my royal sinnamon roll :') He tries his best to change for the better but also wants to stay in his comfortable pre-ADSOM life and basically needs hugs. Please send him hugs.
And after everything, Rhy totally still sees Kell as a brother and not just a messenger, which melted my fangirling heart. *fans self*

Related post: check out my discussion on which type of villain death is the BESTEST.

If the third book cover isn't black or grey, I will cry.

Two ways this sequel didn't live quite up to my expectations:

I get it. It's a middle book. There needs to be a third book (and you can bet I am ready to read it ANYTIME, excuse me.) And the character development and worldbuilding was phenomenal ... but the plot was practically non-existent until we got to the halfway point.

I definitely still felt compelled to read on because of the lovely writing and the characters. But most of the book felt like set-up and not much of it was paid off towards the end. In particular, Ojka, a new character from White London, was so underused in my opinion. I'm eager to see these plot points in book 3, but AGOS did suffer from mild Middle Book Syndrome. (VERY mild. I'm just nitpicky, okay?)

And two: that ending. I said no spoilers and I'll stick to it, but it didn't have the grand finale of A Darker Shade of Magic. I saw the pages winding down and just couldn't believe it ended so quickly ... it's not necessary a terrible thing, but it left me underwhelmed. (Then I started screaming for book 3. So ... maybe a necessary evil.)

In conclusion, A Gathering of Shadows wrecked my heart into a million pieces and I loved it and you must read it. That's all.

Overall rating for A Gathering of Shadows: ☆☆☆☆☆ I couldn't hate this if I tried

Thank you to my mother for the birthday gift, even though I abandoned homework for it! A GATHERING OF SHADOWS debuted on the NYT bestselling list — and it ABSOLUTELY deserves it.

Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift, and into Black London.

In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalises preparations for the Element Games—an extravagant international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighbouring countries—a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again—meaning that another London must fall.

Goodreads // Publisher // The Book Depository

Have you read A Darker Shade of Magic and/or A Gathering of Shadows? What's the best middle book you've read? AND! What do you think makes a fantastic sequel?

Twitter-sized takeout:

Join my takeout army to receive monthly letters of magic, madness, and murder!

I'M SEVENTEEN! I shriek thank you and hold a giveaway!

2016-02-27T20:30:00.000+08:00

It's time for partying! And thank you's! And a scavenger hunt! And a giveaway! BASICALLY ALL THE FUN.

Because it it my birthday! Rejoice, blookunity!

Okay, I think we've had enough excitement and exclamation marks. This has been an amazing journey — three years, blookunity! — so let's look back:

I changed my name to The Devil Orders Takeout and celebrated my second blogversary. Also known as this blog finally got decent.
I did ONE WHOLE YEAR of #WatchMeWrite, aka uploading videos of me writing.
I wrote my Mulan translation and you can still get it immediately here
I started writing Chinese Culture posts, my trademark post series!
I began to co-host Snazzy Snippets — wherein writers share bits of their WIP — with the wonderful Emily
I first hit 50 comments on one post when I introduced my witchy Mulan + Swan Lake retelling. If this still intrigues you, scroll on for something exciting!
I passed 100 followers on Bloglovin' and 500 followers on Twitter!! YOU GUYS ARE CRAZY AWESOME.
And most importantly ... my takeout army is 1 year old! Join our community of book bloggers who love YA fantasy and takeout + receive my Mulan translation and an action guide for developing your book blogger trademark!

My ginormous thanks to my beta readers for various WIPs:

Aimee Meester: your support and enthusiasm for my WIPs blows me away // Alex McCarron: I adore your aesthetic // Asha: your feedback is always so helpful // Anastasia Hart: You were one of my earliest writing inspirations. just, thank you. // Christina Im: you made me love myths and retellings so you are my queen. Also credit to you for inspiring Kim who remains my own favourite character! // Eve @ Appletaile: your poetry has grown by truly breathtaking amounts and I am always blown away // Heather Hufford: you have the greatest sense of humour; all the best with your WIPs, esp bagel-loving Death // Nivedha: thank you for being one of my earliest Figment friends. I would not be here without you. // Rae Oestrich: your writing advice and beta help is so awesome // Topaz Winters: your gorgeous poetry inspires me so much!

(Psst, if you're interested in reading my manuscripts ... there is a special opportunity in this post. Keep scrolling!)

Equally huge thanks to those around the blookunity:

Aentee @ Read at Midnight: I've seen your blog grow from its itty bitty stages to its glorious present self and it's just so fabulous! // Ava Jae: your writing advice is THE BESTEST and I loved Beyond the Red! // Cait @ Paper Fury: thanks for breaking my heart with Tremolo please write more // Chiara Sullivan: love your important opinions on LGBT+ fiction // Emily Mead: thank you for agreeing when I basically flung myself in your face to co-host Snazzy Snippets with you! // Jayvee @ Writer for Misfits: you brighten my Twitter TL every day // Kelly & Kynndra @ Diva Booknerd: your reviews are glorious and your Tumblr edits slay me // Kwan Ann Tan: but okay?? your poetry??? is just???? aslkfjdlkjasdf // Mishma @ Chasing Faes: #DiverseReads2016 is the best thing ever, thanks for featuring me // Rachana @ Addicted to YA: your comments make me smile, your poetry makes me keyboard smash // Shannon Miz: you're such a vivacious presence in the blookunity // Shar & Shanti @ Virtually Read: You two have the most fantastic blog post ideas!

But basically thank you to EVERYONE who's ever read, commented, or shared a blog post, or replied to, faved, or retweeted my tweets, or followed me in any of the ways available. You are THE AWESOMEST.

A scavenger hunt! Win the giveaway!

Basically, scavenge all around the blog for the answers to these questions! Then copy the questions into a comment, answer them, and enter for MOAR entries in the giveaway. They may have more than one answer, so don't fret.

Who is my favourite author (of 2015, anyways)?
Which extremely-hyped books disappointed me?
Which is my favourite Sylvia Plath poem?
What is the colour of my laptop keypad cover?
What was the original title of Matryoshka?
Name/describe a character who died in Shadowplay.*

Search around on the blog (and for the more challenging ones, other sites I'm on) for the answers! These increase in difficulty, so good luck! Then answer the questions in a comment of this post and enter the giveaway.

*Shadowplay is the Matryoshka prequel, chronicling the civil war. Theoretically you need to have been around really long to know this, but think about it and there's actually a loophole.

ALL THE GIVEAWAYS.

In both these giveaways, you get ALL THESE FOUR THINGS: (a) commissioning a custom "bubblehead" portrait from me, like this one:

Twitter, I did an artsy THING instead of rewriting. Should I make more of these? OR SHOULD I GET BACK TO THE WIP? pic.twitter.com/RWMABdZA8o
— Alyssa Carlier (@AlyssaC_HK) February 12, 2016

(b) commissioning a quote poster from me, examples below (c) getting to read Matryoshka in April once this giveaway ends ans (d) getting to read Witches Black and Silver when I finish the second draft in June/July.

On the left, a quote from revenge WIP Matryoshka; on the right, the opening line of Witches Black and Silver. Both of these are quote posters designed by moi!

I should also add that there are no more open beta rounds of both Matryoshka and Witches Black and Silver in my current writing plan -- which is up to May 2017! I will personally invite betas that have relevant diverse experiences to fact-check, are fabulous people, or plain threatened me with dragons and pineapples. But even those people will be reading a much later draft, so if you're impatient, you should join!

Besides, there is zero obligation to give any kind of feedback, so for those too busy to beta-read -- this one is for you.
a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway
This is your earliest chance to read these works and quite possibly your only chance too. Go forth and enter! One winner is from general blog readers, the other two from my takeout army. Not yet a member? Join now and triple your winning chances.

Oh, and a surprise giveaway! I won a Society6 coupon from the ever-lovely Bhavya, so I'm giving it back to the blookunity. Yay!a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you, lovelies, for staying around The Devil Orders Takeout so long! What takeout do you bring to this party? And tell me your answers to the scavenger game!

Join my takeout army to get extra entries in the giveaway! Yay!

How Important Is the Author When Reading a Book? | Beyond the Red by Ava Jae

2016-02-20T20:30:00.000+08:00

*GASP* This is my first book review on this blog, AND my first ARC review. But it's actually mostly a discussion post focused on a specific book.

Authors affect the reading of a book in two levels: enjoyment and analytical.

The enjoyment level is probably more common in the blookunity. There are some authors who absolutely rock it on the Internet, and Ava's writing blog never fails to deliver super useful advice. A while ago, there was a lot of discussion about how far one's impression of an author affects one's impression of a book.

If you tell me that no author has ever affected your reading life ever, I call that bluff. Seriously. Unless your books are delivered to you via flying bagels who also pour cream cheese over the author name to hide it, THAT IS A LIE. (Psst, read more lies #bookbloggers tell themselves by our Pyjama Queen Blogger Cait. Hilarious post!)

For me personally, the author isn't very important when reading a book, but they definitely contribute towards whether I choose to pick up a book. If Ava's writing advice wasn't so insanely helpful, I might never be following her, and hence have no clue her book even existed. It also meant I started reading with high expectations.

The truth is, even if an author is amazing online and I pick up their book just because of that, that's not 100% in their favour. These expectations can be disappointed (and it has happened!), which easily backfires in my opinion of the book. This did not happen with Beyond the Red — it was a fabulous novel in its own right, as I'll discuss in a moment.

The analytical level is less common in the YA blookunity, perhaps because we don't analyse books that often. But it does apply to Beyond the Red to a limited extent (woah there, Alyssa, don't turn this into an essay). Ava advocates diverse representation so much, and Red totally portrayed that. Eros, as an alien-human hybrid, struggled with the same issues that biracial people might face; the characters were dark-skinned by default (which makes sense, because deserts!); and a gay couple is featured.

But for me, whatever effect the author has ...

The book HAS to be awesome too. Beyond the Red met my expectations.

Because I mean, no matter how awesome the author is, a mediocre book is mediocre. NOT SO FOR THIS ONE.

To be honest, Beyond the Red was one of my first sci-fi reads in quite some time. But when I began, it was like returning to a favourite city. The writing was simple and elegant, with meticulous worldbuilding but never getting bogged down by detail. This book was scrumptiously addictive from page one.

And oh, the characters. Perhaps because of the writing style, I was completely immersed in Kora's + Eros' respective mindsets. And this is in a book with dual PoV, where I typically find myself favouring one PoV over the other. But both characters were equally interesting. Don't ever make me pick which to throw in the trash compactor.

But neither of them is my favourite character. I have the unfortunate talent of latching onto the doomed side of love triangles. Exhibit A: Paris from Romeo and Juliet. Exhibit B: Serek from Beyond the Red. I knew Serek/Kora was super unlikely, because Serek isn't even in the blurb.

But could you blame me for shipping them? Serek is literally the cutest — he's the younger brother of the overlord of the planet, and one of Kora's suitors. He's sweet and caring and defends Kora and basically 100% okay with it when Kora realises she prefers Eros. And he is nice to Eros too. He's nice to everyone, but not at all a pushover.

And even though his older brother is militant and the exact opposite of Serek's own personality, Serek never stops caring for his family. Their sibling dynamic was fascinating and Serek doesn't throw that away completely in favour of his romance with Kora. Serek is a prime example of why nice guys are THE BEST in fiction and in real life.

*fans self* He's also the reason for this:

I can't say more because SPOILERS, but I really enjoyed how the ending was handled for Serek.

And there were ALL THE PLOT TWISTS. Clearly I can't ramble about this much, but I loved how the situation kept getting more complex and personal. ~~Says Alyssa, as if being queen of a rioting nation with a brother trying to usurp your throne isn't already personal.~~ Especially true for Eros, who starts with 'trying to survive' and ends with way more stakes. Just. Fabulously rising tension.

OH AND. I ADORED how half-blood Eros serves as a fictional counterpart to biracial people in real life. This is clearly taken to the extreme in Beyond the Red, but his identity struggles were deliciously vivid.

My two main issues with this book are the romance ... and the other romance. Okay, so one issue.

It could be my dislike of romance in general, but I felt like Kora and Eros didn't have much chemistry. (Shrieking Serek/Kora at my Kindle didn't help.) The only parts of this book I skimmed over were their kissing scenes, because I couldn't wait to get back into the politics and such.

The other romance is between Kora's younger brother and his (male) guard. Kora walked in on them in bed and this only made their relationship worse. It's a source of temporary conflict in the book, but I don't know ... I hardly know anything about either of them and I really wish this was given more of a spotlight.

Perhaps in the sequel if there's one? Which, yes, I would absolutely read.

Overall rating for Beyond the Red: ☆☆☆☆☆ so fabulous I can't even

Psst! Ava is holding a preorder giveaway for people who preorder Beyond the Red before 29 Feb. (See what I mean about the author being important to whether you pick up a book?) Check out the details here.

Thank you to Sky Pony Press for providing the eARC via Edelweiss! BEYOND THE RED comes out March 1st, 2016.

Alien queen Kora has a problem as vast as the endless crimson deserts. She’s the first female ruler of her territory in generations, but her people are rioting and call for her violent younger twin brother to take the throne. Despite assassination attempts, a mounting uprising of nomadic human rebels, and pressure to find a mate to help her rule, she’s determined to protect her people from her brother’s would-be tyrannical rule.

Eros is a rebel soldier hated by aliens and human alike for being a half-blood. Yet that doesn’t stop him from defending his people, at least until Kora’s soldiers raze his camp and take him captive. He’s given an ultimatum: be an enslaved bodyguard to Kora, or be executed for his true identity—a secret kept even from him.

When Kora and Eros are framed for the attempted assassination of her betrothed, they flee. Their only chance of survival is to turn themselves in to the high court, where revealing Eros’s secret could mean a swift public execution. But when they uncover a violent plot to end the human insurgency, they must find a way to work together to prevent genocide.

Goodreads // Publisher // The Book Depository

SOOOO. Do you like this discussion/review mashup? How do you take into account the author when reading a book? And are you going to read Beyond the Red?

Twitter-sized takeout:

Join my takeout army to receive monthly letters of magic, madness, and murder!

5 Steps to Defining Your Trademark as a Book Blogger

2016-02-13T20:30:00.002+08:00

BLOOKUNITY. Are you ready for an intense 2000 word guide to define YOUR book blogger trademark? It's super detailed, but don't worry — it's divided into 5 simple steps and summarised into two sentences. Stay until the end for that summary!

In this post, I'll be analysing the 5 essential components of a book blogger's trademark. This guide can help you carve out your own individual niche and make your mark in the blookunity!

Background image from Creative Market. Pin this, won't you?

Last week on Twitter, I told about 70 bloggers what I thought their trademarks were, and there were a few themes that kept popping up.

Why is having a blogger trademark important?

There are many, many, many book bloggers out there. Having a trademark makes it easier for everyone to remember you in the blookunity, and if you're THE person with that trademark, people will automatically think of you when they come across it in real life!

Having a trademark is like having the same profile picture across all your social media. It makes people remember (and like!) you more because you're different.

If you're not sure what your trademark is, and you want to have a unique image in the blookunity, read through these five steps and create your own book blogger trademark so everyone will associate you with a few specific things!

Looking to promote your blog to book lovers? My giveaways are promoted to 1000+ subscribers and have gotten up to 18K impressions on Twitter. Email me to sponsor one now!

So without further ado, the 5 essential components of a book blogger's trademark!

1. What are your major post types?

Many people have recurring blog series. For example, every month, I talk about Chinese culture and that's one of my more popular posts. I don't post book reviews, but I write lots of bookish discussions. I also post writing snippets every now and then.

Some examples of post types:

list posts
discussion posts
writing snippets
graphics posts
collaboration/roundup posts

You don't necessarily need to only write this type of post, or change all your blog posts — just take a look if there are any major trends! If you're having trouble finding what types of post you write most, try to figure out which post types receive the most comments/pageviews/shares.

BUT don't go for something that's not that unique. Like book reviews or blog tours or Top Ten Tuesday posts ... let's be honest, 80% of the blookunity do those, and they're not as memorable. Find what makes you different.

You can emphasise your major post type by making a "top posts" widget in your sidebar or footer or adding it to your navigation bar! That way, people who land on your blog will immediate see these posts and associate you with them.

2. What are your recurring themes?

All book bloggers will of course talk about books. So to set yourself apart, you need to talk about specific books in a specific way. I explain Chinese customs every month, and I write Chinese-inspired books, and basically I carry a sign saying "China" through the Internet. A lot of people told me they associated me with Chinese culture.

What's more, I sometimes get random DMs or messages asking me about Chinese culture. (Which I 200% welcome!) Now I'm sure I'm not the only person familiar with China in the blookunity, but I make a point of emphasising it. Get known for talking about a specific subject matter, and you'll be the go-to person for that.

For more bookish niches, I've broken this part down into three sections:

a) What is your favourite genre?

There are some bloggers that read everything and anything, of course. But some people review mostly contemporary, mostly historical fiction, mostly romance, mostly dystopian. And most likely you also have a favourite genre — this is your ready-made trademark, y'all.

Then you need to narrow it down. My favourite genre is fantasy, in case you didn't know. But I'm not so much a fan of urban fantasy as something that is 80% speculative. This is easier for me because I write novels and categorise them in my head, but just scan your shelf and see if any genres pop out at you!

I'm also a huge fan of fairytales and mythology and legends, which is why another of my trademarks is myths and retellings. Many of my manuscripts are retellings, especially YA fantasy retellings.

And yeah, these trademarks might overlap! Which makes for a more coherent trademark. In a moment, we'll try to put all these together to make ONE trademark sentence to define you, so make sure these fit together.

b) Who are your favourite authors?

Yeah, yeah, I can hear you complain about finding this. Not to worry, I have an infographic for you to find your fav author. There's no need to have a single obvious one.

My favourite author is Victoria Schwab, author of A Darker Shade of Magic amongst others, and in case you didn't know there's an #ADSOMreadalong going on at the moment and you should most certainly join in the fun on Twitter!

Wait, see what I did there? I just advocated an author — who writes many books in my favourite genre! Having a few obvious favourite authors helps define your genre in a much more specific way.

And remember, it's not just knowing in your head who is your favourite author — show it to the world! Throw their books at people! Take bookstagrams of their books! Advocate the author. It's good karma, but by recommending books to others, the blookunity will remember your fandoms. You'll be THE [insert author] fan.

c) What bookish causes do you support?

In case you didn't know, I love diverse representation. I basically never. shut. up about it. My tagline and bios include my advocacy for diverse representation. I discuss diversity like ALWAYS.

There are so many causes you can take up in the blookunity. You can support indie or debut authors. You can support #readwomen or #ownvoices. You can focus on reviewing LGBT+ or mental illness books. You can support local bookstores and libraries.

3. What is your writing style or voice?

I try to keep my blog posts snarky but stay away from too many emojis, although I do use caps occasionally. I'm much more informal on Twitter and go loose with caps and emojis and *flailing*. But my novelling style tends towards the lyrical side.

Some examples of writing style:

ALL CAPS SO EXCITED AAAAAH
Short and sweet.
*narrates own actions like this*
lowercase letters are totally hipster, right
Emojis — this works even better if you overuse one specific emoji!
made-up words, e.g. blookunity for me, or words used out of context like "breadstick" as an affectionate term

Of course, your writing style is not so easily defined! Take some time to explore this, or RT my tweet and I'll see if anything jumps out at me. And start working right away with the step-by-step action guide I created:

Get this 30-step guide to stand out in the blookunity!

4. What is your aesthetic?

My aesthetic is definitely dark and evil and nefarious. Mwahahaha. I was told I was Gothic, also. If you're not the artsy type (like me) and can't tell your own aesthetic, here are the two things you can focus on:

(a) Colour

The colours I use on the blog are red and white and black, with a few shades in between. This background is actually a pale shade of pinkish yellow, I think. I definitely go for bold and badass more than sweet and sassy, because that's who I choose to be online.

Let's revise some of those art lessons I've forgotten! Do you use warm or cool colours? Grayscale or highly saturated? Pastel or dark? Create a colour palette and play around with it!

(b) Font

I use a lot of Times New Roman, so I suppose that's why I'm "Gothic"? For my blog graphics, I use Avenir Next, which is a simple, more minimalistic font. It doesn't contribute towards my aesthetic, but it doesn't contradict either. Thick cursive fonts, thin dainty fonts, carefree handwriting fonts ... there are so many options here!

There are of course other aesthetic things such as gifs, or how your profile picture looks. And if you're on Instagram, perhaps you have a specific aesthetic there — apply it to your blog design, your Twitter headers, everything.

This can also become much more concrete if there's a specific object that can convey the aesthetic. Like a certain shade of lipstick, or a logo! (I actually am thinking I might need to switch up my flower logo sometime. Huh.) Add these items to your profile pictures or social media headers. Tada, aesthetic established!

If you have no idea what your aesthetic is? Get inspired with Nova @ Out of Time's aesthetic guessing game! See if you can guess mine, it shouldn't be difficult. She'll do a how-to post for aesthetics soon, so stay tuned for that.

5. What is your random favourite thing?

This is not mandatory, and in fact is probably detached from the rest of your trademark. But a random favourite thing adds personality. You're not just a book blogger, you are also a human. (I hope!)Having a favourite non-bookish thing reminds the blookunity of that.

So don't say "Oh I love books" or "I fangirl a lot". Sure, that's part of your trademark as well, but a random trademark is there to add something else. Mine is of course takeout — it's in the blog title, I often send people virtual takeout, I use puns like Dim Summary, and I call my readers a takeout army.

Bonus points if you include it in your profile photo — this is easily done if it's a tea/coffee mug, or a camera, or cake, some such!

Plus here's your two-sentence summary of this blog post!

Your book blogger trademark in a sentence: I am a [genre] book blogger who writes [writing style] [major post type] about [recurring theme], with [an aesthetic]. Also, I love [random thing].

For example, I am a Hong Kong (recurring theme) YA fantasy (genre) book blogger and writer who writes lyrical (writing style) retellings (genre) and bookish discussions (major post type) about diverse (recurring theme) magical girls. On the dark side (aesthetic), of course. (snarky writing style is shown!) Also, I love takeout. (random)

I didn't follow the template exactly here, but I get the same message across by showing, not telling! This is even better and can take your trademark to the next level.

Looking to promote your blog to book lovers? My giveaways are promoted to 1000+ subscribers and have gotten up to 18K impressions on Twitter. Email me to sponsor one now!

Want to develop your trademark? Grab your 30-step action guide right now!

The thing is — a single component cannot define your trademark. A list of a few things? That's what you should aim for — a coherent group of issues/ideas/concepts that you'd totally dig.

Chinese Culture: Our Funerals and Mourning Traditions

2016-02-06T20:30:00.001+08:00

Today, I will share our grave traditions with you. (ahahahaha I'm sorry I couldn't resist the pun.) But anyhow, I shall take you through an overview of Chinese funerals and the mourning process.*

*I'm looking at the subject matter from local traditions and superstition. Everyone has their own grieving process and bereavement, and I don't want to detract from anyone's own experiences, especially as a person who is privileged enough to not have lost anyone too close to myself yet. This is a look at customs, nothing more.

1. Chinese beliefs and traditions about a person's death

I'll address four main traditions/superstitions, via some Chinese idioms!

(a) 死無全屍 — die without a complete corpse

This is ... well, exactly what it says. Chinese people are oddly fixated on keeping the entire corpse for burial. This is of course impossible in all cases, but traditionally we very much prefer doing so. So cremation was extremely unpopular for a great segment of history. Otherwise ghosts and all sorts of superstitious bad things will occur.

This has also caused some minor issues when it comes to organ donation and so on — most traditionally minded Chinese people are not inclined to donate their organs after death for this very reason. On the flip side, I'm hopeful that we'll find a compromise soon because urbanisation is forcing all of us to change.

For example, traditionally people were buried in cemeteries, fair enough. Then we had to use cremations because Hong Kong isn't big enough for that many dead people. However, the buildings for funeral urns are now really expensive as well. My mother has given me permission to store her remains in a Ziploc bag in our house.

I refused her very emphatically and proceeded to add an entry to my plot bunnies document.

(b) 死在異鄉 — die in a foreign home

I really could have translated the last word 鄉 as place instead, but home felt much more appropriate for the connotations. Interesting oxymoron that brings about, but isn't everyone's home foreign to someone else?

Anyhow! Most Chinese people preferred to stay near their own home for most of their lives. Early on, this was for practical reasons — we were an agricultural society and you can't exactly drag around farms, but also Confucius said you shouldn't travel away from your parents while they were still alive. The Chinese population therefore decided Confucius, as always, was right.

Still, sometimes these trips can't be avoided, and oftentimes these trips end up with our brave hero dead. This somehow always makes the death sadder because their family is waiting back home with them, and they never got to say goodbye, and the people who are with them on their deathbed might not really care, and the family can't attend the funeral, and their ghost might never go home ...

Long story short, it's much sadder than a normal death. Huh, that's a thought ... *heads over to rewrite novels*

(c) I am number four

This superstition is based on the pun of die and four, which have the same phonetics but a different intonation. Many superstitious beliefs in China are built upon similar wordplay.

Additionally, fourteen sounds similar to must die and is extra unlucky. On the flip side, one-three-one-four sounds like one life one world; in other words, 'till death do us part. It's considered a lucky number for couples and many weddings happen on dates including the string of 1314 somewhere.

(Psst, interested in MORE Chinese culture, especially our language? I've translated the original Mulan and you can download the Mulan translation here to compare the English and Chinese!)

In most buildings in China, the fourth floor is skipped over. Same goes for fourteenth, twenty-fourth, thirty-fourth and so on. There's a building I know that takes it a step further and cuts out all the floors from forty to forty-nine. Apparently, it's puzzled many kids in the building trying to do maths.

Actually, skipping ten floors isn't superstition. It's real estate developers trying to pretend their buildings are taller.

(d) 節哀順變 — end sorrow, accept change

At funerals, this is one of the things to say to the deceased's loved ones. While the message is more or less the same as my condolences or I'm so sorry for your loss, the literal translation has more complex social connotations. It counsels moving on much more strongly than Western customs.

My personal take on this practice is that we shouldn't cling to the dead. (I believe it's based in Buddhism and the idea of what comes round goes round, but I'm not very familiar with the subject.) In fact, vengeance is discouraged in our culture — or if it happens, it's called justice.

Perhaps this does bleed through in my own writing, since the revenge-seeking in Matryoshka is quite possibly the stupidest idea in the entire book. Speaking of bleeding, I procrastinated and wrote the death scene of Thomas' father (which kicks off the entire book!) — read the special scene with my takeout army on 13/2!

At some funerals, you will also bow thrice to the casket, and then the family, standing off to the side, returns the bow. The first bow is to respect the heavens; the second to mourn the deceased; and the third to console the family. Not everyone who arrives has to do this — I've never done it, personally — but closest friends often do.

2. Traditional Chinese festivals about death

The first festival is the Chung Yang Festival, or the Double Ninth Festival. It occurs on the ninth day of the ninth month of the Lunar Calendar. The second is the Qing Ming Festival. Its occurrence depends on the latitude of the sun near April 5th, but mostly it occurs on April 4th, 5th, or 6th.

These festivals have similar customs. Traditionally, most people are buried in cemeteries on hills, quite some distance away from residential areas. It's customary to go hiking on the day to your relative's grave.

Then a variety of offerings are laid at the grave. Flowers, food (especially fruit and roast pork), and folded paper models of everything. Everything. Money. Houses. People. iPhones. Incense sticks are also lit and planted in special pots.

By the way, this is also why you shouldn't stick your chopsticks vertically in your rice — looks kind of like the incense, no? (So yeah, we actually have reasons for chopstick etiquette. Unlike the twelve hundred fork placements at Western meals.)

Related: our god of death is called Yama. He's basically responsible for rewarding the virtuous (with reincarnation, sometimes) and punishing those who aren't. Interestingly, he can be reasoned with — more than a few legends have him resurrecting friends if you ask nicely. (Share this fact with your Twitter friends; who knows, it might come in handy!)

Interested in the superstitions and legends of China? I wrote a post about two of my favourite Chinese myths you can check out.

3. Traditional Chinese symbols of death

As a writer and literature student, I would be remiss if I did not discuss symbolism. Some symbols are similar internationally, such as winter = death because obviously everything freezes.

But instead of black, the colour of death is white. (This is why you don't wear white to Chinese weddings.) This is quickly fading away in contemporary China, though, and people aren't normally afraid of wearing white. But some older generations dislike white hair accessories, since that's more blatantly a sign of mourning.

And instead of liles, the flower of death is chrysanthemums. (I mixed this up with carnations once and my mother glared so long at me.) It sometimes symbolises chivalry, as well, but white chrysanthemums are death for sure.

Hmm, reminds me ... *adds detail to Matryoshka* Oh, and while I'm rewriting, don't forget to join the takeout army before 13/2 and read the extra DEATH scene!

Any other questions about how China deals with death? How does your culture approach this topic?

Twitter-sized takeout:

Snazzy Snippets: Valentine Edition (with utterly unromantic snippets)

2016-02-01T16:00:00.000+08:00

Hello world! Before we begin Snazzy Snippets today — there is an #ADSOMreadalong for the wonderful A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, in anticipation of the release of the sequel A Gathering of Shadows in February!

We'll be having Twitter chats, so join us on 1, 8, 15 and 22 February at 9 PM EST with the hashtag #ADSOMreadalong. You should absolutely join us if you've already read ADSOM, have it on your TBR, or enjoy badass pirate ladies, killer magic, and cinnamon roll princes.

And now!

Emily talked me into a Valentine edition, and I thought, why not? After all, a lot of writers love writing romance, and I always accidentally write unhappy romances. Everyone gets to share, yay!

(Don't worry, non-romance writers — feel free to adjust the prompts for platonic love if you prefer.)

Newcomers, I co-host a bimonthly link-up with Emily @ Loony Literate called Snazzy Snippets. What's it about?

Snazzy Snippets is an opportunity for writers! Every two months, we post a prompt or question for you to share a snippet of less than 500 words. It’s designed to let you have fun, analyse your work on a smaller level, or just write something to join in.

If you’re not a writer, or aren’t working on anything, don’t go back up the rabbit hole just yet. Read everyone’s wonderful snippets on the linky!

Still have questions? Snazzy Snippets has its own page on the blog, with FAQs and more. Take a look! And remember: this isn't just for novels! The prompts were designed with novels in mind, but most are also applicable to short stories, poetry, anything. We welcome all types of writing!

Valentine prompts!

A heartwarming snippet that makes readers go “aww!”

A kissing snippet

A snippet where love interests first appear together
(applicable for both future or established relationships)

Again, feel free to adjust these prompts for platonic love if romance isn't your jam! And remember to include your post URL in the linky. I'll be sure to visit ALL your snazzy snippets.

1. A heartwarming snippet that makes readers go “aww!”

Okay, I'll be honest, I don't actually have one. My romance subplots are not fluffy, okay? But there is a Matryoshka flashback for familiar love I'm rather fond of:

On his fifth birthday, his father brought Thomas a dagger with Mexrenne gilded on the blade. “People will always scorn you. For being a southerner, for being illegitimate, for being at all. If they hurt you, laugh it off and hurt them back.”

I ... wait, is that even heartwarming? IT IS IN MY BOOK. (Yay, triple pun!)

Thomas was born out of wedlock and didn't get to see his father much, but they did love each other. Thomas basically spends the entire novel walking in his father's footsteps, which may not be the wisest thing when one's parent started a war. And lost it. *squishes the idiot*

In fact, Thomas' father made many poor decisions in life, which resulted in his death. Spoiler! Oh wait, this is a story about finding revenge for his death. Join my takeout army before 12th February to read a spin-off short of Thomas' father's death! Not all is as Thomas thinks it is; rather problematic for a revenge story. *grin*

3. A snippet where love interests first appear together

Thomas tucked his hand behinds his back to hide the sweat and the shaking. He noted down the boy’s features one by one. Hair the colour of Niteran sands, eyes like the rivers of Valz Sommari, long fingers that slipped in and out of his pockets. His uncle would find out who this was in no time.

“I’m Daniel, the Chancellor’s assistant. Friends call me Dan.”

“We’ve just met. It’s too early to tell if we’re friends.”

“You’re too quick to judge if we should be friends.” Daniel—Dan spent his grins as freely as a bird might fly. ...

[Thomas:] “Kindness means nothing to the dead.”

“And vengeance does?” Dan’s whiplash reply might have made Thomas smile, but the other boy pouted his pink lips.

Thomas placed a hand over his heart and bowed. A bastard ought to be humble, even to a glorified cupbearer. “We began on a bad note, Dan, and I beg your pardon. Perhaps we might begin again.”

Thomas: raised in exile to play politics, child of the last provincial Governor and his much smarter lover. Dan: survived on the streets through a war and managed to find work in less shady parts of town. Their tongues are a little too sharp for each other.

It's no coincidence that their banter involves a great deal of parallel syntax — there's even more in the rest of Matryoshka. I knew from the start that these two would be love interests, but somewhere in the second draft, Thomas and Dan became polar opposites in morality and temperament.

Tweet this snippet and share the banter! It is, after all, one of their more civil meetings.

2. A kissing snippet

Blookunity, I would love it if you could be more critical about this snippet. I have zero kissing experience and I have this niggling feeling it shows. So help me improve this snippet!

“Can I do something mad?” Dan said in a low voice, his eyes never leaving Thomas’.

“I spent half my life in exile for a father I saw twice a year. I come back with an avenging widow and a merchant who trades in smiles. I’m accusing the most powerful person in Valzyr of murder when he’s defended by the only judge who’s doing her job in the country.” Thomas dropped Dan’s fingers and stepped close enough to see the other boy’s eyes widen. “You couldn’t make my life madder unless my father rose from the dead. Under the circumstances, mad is normal. Mad is good.”

Dan kissed him and tucked fingers around Thomas’ neck as if looking for an ocean in his trembling throat. The constellations could have torn apart and rained hellfire down on them, and they’d never notice. Not until they burned together.

Dan pulled away first. They were both panting heavily, as if they’d already run all the way through the capital. “Well, that was worth getting into this mess.”

There is a lot of character soup here, but it does sum up the story quite nicely.

Widow: Thomas' immensely superior mother Aisha, who is the family strategizer.
Merchant: Thomas' slightly more superior uncle Ramzi, who is the family fundraiser.
Most powerful person: Mallister, Prime Minister + murderer of a lot of people.
Judge: Kim, our sassy hanbok-wearing justice lady who kicks so much ass and takes no nonsense GAH. Nope, I'm not playing favourites.

Oh wait, was I supposed to talk romance? *shrugs* Uhh ... they may have been talking intensely just before this scene, and you know how movies have the guy kiss the girl to shut her up? This scene is a little different—first off, no girl; secondly, Dan asks permission.

But maybe it's a terrible kissing scene so again, would love critiques in the comments!

Oh oh oh! And if you like the sound of my WIPs, there may be a very exciting opportunity on February 27th, my birthday + blogoversary party! Or if you're impatient, I'll send out an extra Matryoshka scene on February 12th, so join my takeout army to read that scene.

Which is your favourite snippet? What are your thoughts on romance?

Twitter-sized takeout:

In January: I tried book photography and welcome back Kim!

2016-01-23T20:30:00.000+08:00

OKAY. Here goes my first recap post!

I've been blogging:

you guys loved my Witches Black and Silver Snazzy Snippets

remember, the next Snazzy Snippets is next week on February 1st! Join us for a Valentine edition~

have some Chinese takeout in a traditional teahouse?
we celebrated 7 types of villain deaths last week inspired by Cait
join my takeout army for an extra, non-spoilery death scene from Matryoshka!

I've been reading:

First photo was inspired by Cait @ Paper Fury's levitating book photo. Not 100% happy with the execution, but the concept perhaps? The second photo was my first photo edited through VSCOcam. Blookunity, book photography advice please? Critiques very welcome!

In January, I reviewed WOLF BY WOLF (January favourite!), Illuminae, The Game of Love and Death, The Zombie Survival Guide, and The Novel Planner on Goodreads.

Friend me on Goodreads for bookish updates, and add me on Tumblr for more book photos!

I've been writing:

I'm making SO MANY edits to Matryoshka, my revenge-gone-wrong novel in a multicultural city with a sassy justice lady! I'm joining Cait and Emily in their #rewriteathon on Twitter, hoping to finish in March.

A huge thank you to my betas, first of all, whose advice has/will help me a great deal. Some plans are changing Thomas' name and breaking away from my shared-character-name streak with Cait (I've mentioned her four times this post, we're clearly cybertwins anyways); adding a Chekhov's knife that will amuse me; and miraculously not killing off new characters.

Stay updated on my writing news by joining my takeout army! If you join within these two weeks, you'll receive a bonus prequel scene of Matryoshka.

The superlatives of the blookunity:

(Has anyone been to Model United Nations conference where they vote on cutest delegation and next Malala or whatnot? This is the blookunity equivalent.)

The Zombie Apocalypse Squad Leader: Emily shares 12 hilarious places to shelve and weaponise your books.
The Oreo Supporter: Aentee's #DiverseYABC will discuss Simon Vs! Join us 31st Jan 1 PM AEDT on Twitter.
The Future Professor: Jillian researched diverse representation and made a great infographic!
The Sassiest Blogger: Shanti diagnoses some common problems of YA bookworms. Hilarious + accurate!
New Blog on the Block: Rachel launched Silver Mess and listed 101 hilarious ways to fail a driving test.

So tell me! Thoughts on my book photography? Do you want MORE dim summaries?

Join my takeout army to receive monthly letters of magic, madness, and murder!