friday5 for November 30, 2012

1. Lots of Hunger Games-y news this week (which I'm always a fan of), including these incredible pics out of Hawaii where they're currently filming the quarter quell scenes for Catching Fire. The outfits aside (which fans won't recognize from the books as they're quite different, though spiffy nevertheless), things are looking EXACTLY as I'd pictured them when reading. I know that's not hard to do (water water everywhere, let's all have a drink), but I feel like I'm re-reading the book just looking at these pictures. I'm already beyond excited for this film! As an aside, have you checked out any of the promo for Silver Linings Playbook? Could Jennifer Lawrence be any funnier/more down to earth? LOVE that girl.

2. In related (sort of) news, Suzanne Collins' (author of the HG) next book has been announced and it's not likely to feature kids violently killing--unless they're "killing" illiteracy. Year of the Jungle is a picture book, aimed at children 4 years and older. I think HG fans will be a bit disappointed by this news, but hey, if J.K. could follow-up Potter with The Casual Vacancy, then why not a children's book for Collins? It doesn't mean she won't go on to write more awesome YA one day. Maybe her writer brain just needed a break after the heaviness of Mockingjay.

Hmmm...maybe this new protagonist also likes Mockingjay pins? Yes, my Photoshop skills are 2-legit-2-quit.

3. I don't know why exactly, but this totally made my week. The song is great. And no description I can give you would do the video justice. You just have to watch it.

4. You didn't think I'd write a post on the last day of NaNo without a single mention of NaNo, did you? I'll do more of a follow up sometime next week with my final stats, thoughts, etc, but for now, a important tip to reiterate for those of you who have managed to finish a 50k novel during this month we call Novemeber: No matter how happy you are with what you've written, it's not ready to be published (if that's your goal). Take December and revise. Take January and revise (because you know December is going to be waaaay to busy to revise properly) and maybe even take February to make it shiny. Then, and only then, should you consider sending it to an agent or publisher for their consideration. A 50k book (aside from being on the short side) written in a month, no matter how brilliant you are, is not ready to go.

5.  I know I usually reserve #5 for my YA book rec of the week, but this week I want to give a special shout-out to a new site that recently launched called The Secret Life of Writers. It's run by five awesome young authors, who will be posting their own "insider" stories over the next little while and will be hosting fantastic giveaways as well. It's a blog launch party extravaganza! Definitely check it out. It's shaping up to be a great site and should be a good resource for aspiring young writers and book enthusiasts alike!


One final note before I sign off for the weekend--a big Happy Birthday to my friend, Emily! Go find and follow her on twitter @storyphile. Her tweets will make you wiser, I promise :)