REVIEW: Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

Prove trustworthy,

become my Champion,

 and wealth and glory

will be yours eternal.

sarahjmaas.com

If you were the world’s most deadly assassin, and the only way you could escape your life’s prison sentence was by entering a competition of skill to become the tyrannical King’s Champion—royal slang for hit man—would you do it?

I cannot say yes enough. I think it’s safe to say every person secretly wishes he or she could lead badass lives. However, wanting a badass life is one thing, but actually living vicariously through a character for one is another. Some may say this is pathetic, but clearly I have no shame. Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas definitely provides the right amount of fantasy, fighting, and badassery that can make any reader wish themselves right into the plot.

REVIEW: Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer

flickrhivemind.net

When I sit down to read a book, it is generally with the assumption that I know how to read that book. This is a fairly arbitrary observation, a stupid one even, given that I wouldn’t have made it halfway through college if I didn’t know how to read a book. But bear with me. You will understand my confusion why when I first opened up Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes I wasn’t entirely sure how I was supposed to read it. The book is in English, yes, but where sentences normally run from left to right uninterrupted there were carefully cut holes revealing the layers of pages underneath. Was I supposed to read straight across, the sentences made from the multiple layers of cut pages? This proved incoherent. I flipped the pages in various combinations trying to make sense of it. After spending far too much time doing this, I realized that each page as meant to be read on its own, from word to word, like a spider building a delicate web. When linked together, these haphazard words built a story within a story as it were, and a brilliant piece that only Safran Foer could create.

It's Time to Submit!

It’s that time of year again! Classes are starting up and we’re busy trying to brush away the end of summer blues. We're back to keeping up with our assignments and remembering when all our club meetings are, etc. Yet that shouldn’t stop you from looking for places to submit your work. That’s right, the fall is a great time to get some of your polished pieces out there into the market, either through small presses, big and well-known presses (if you’re lucky!), or even some of Emerson’s own anthologies. There are many opportunities out there for eager writers looking for their chance to build their resume and perhaps make a little pocket change on the side (from paying anthologies).

I’ve been on a roll myself with sending out to companies, both small and large, over the last few weeks trying to get what I’ve had lying around out there. While I’m definitely expecting some rejections from the bigger publishing companies, I’ve got my fingers crossed for the smaller ones. As a writer, that’s something that you have to be prepared for, especially when going out in the world and trying to get your work published. Rejection isn’t fun, trust me, we’ve all gone through it, but when you do get that acceptance letter, it makes it all worthwhile.