Statistics Fun

 So the announcements last night were rather hit-and-run, were they not? I apologize for that. But now you get to read a very long ramble to make up for it! I think some of you may get a grin out of at least ONE of our fill-in responses.

Overall, the Verve Lit 2012 poll ended with 48 votes. I am very blessed with this, because I had been praying for about 50. Thanks to all those people!

First I'll start with the Series category. Most people skipped the other categories and voted in Independent. Only 17 people voted in Series, two votes each for Benjamin Pratt and The Red Blazer Girls. The other thirteen were filled in, and is where we got our winner!

Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet - Goodreads describes this as a series about monsters and witches. One of the obviously-not-Christian reviewers couldn't get over how glad she was it had no inclination to Christian values.

Dragons in Our Midst by Bryan Davis - ... a series about a boy who finds out he was a dragon in a past life, and learns how to have faith. Whatever that means. Take what you wish from that synopsis.

Swipe by Evan Angler - A person must receive the mark in their wrist or they-don't-get-that-job-at-McDonalds. Yep. It got a lot of good reviews on Goodreads.

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Peter's Angel by Aubrey Hansen - This book releases next month from the winner of the Independent category. It's historical fiction.

Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan - Self explanatory. I think everyone has heard about this book, which is probably why someone voted for it. It's about wizards and menacing cloaks, apparently.

Pirates and Faith by Molly Evangeline (received 3 votes) - Winner of Series. I plan on reading the first book soon.

Provost's Dog by Tamora Pierce - Not really sure what this book is about. Wikipedia says it's a fantasy.

The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis - ...

The Destiny Trilogy (by Sarah Holman) - The independents took over ever category, didn't they?

Firmament by J. Grace Pennington

Then there was the Realism category. I was sad because the only book that didn't receive a vote was in the line up: The Running Dream. This is such a great book!
The Penderwicks - 4 votes ; Okay For Now - 3 votes ; Wonder Struck - 1 vote ; fill-in 8 votes...

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Swipe by Evan Angler
Chomp by Carl Hiaasen
1984 by Geore Orwell (could some one explain to me how this is a children's book...? Anyways, in 1984 they spelled George without the second G.)
The Pirate Daughter's Promise by Molly Evangeline (2 votes)
Trickster's Girl by Hilari Bell
The Destiny Of a Galaxy

Independent - only 7 skips.

Red Rain by Aubrey Hansen - 29 votes
The Destiny Trilogy by Sarah Holman - 8 votes
Fill-in: Johnny Vic by Ann Rich Duncan (Historical Fantasy) ; The Pirate Daughter's Promise by Molly Evangeline (3 votes)

Reader's Choice - 7 skips as well. I think people are sending me a message that they prefer Indie novels.

Firmament: Radialloy by J. Grace Pennington  - 26 votes
The Pirate Daughter's Promise by Molly Evangeline - 14 votes
The Charity's Diary Series by Elisabeth Allen - 1 vote -- Aw, come on! I feel rather bad that she only got one vote, her series looked utterly delightful. :-)

I plan on reading all three Reader's Choice books in this next year.



 And there are your stats! I don't know about anyone else, but I got a giggle out of George Orwell being voted for... I mean his work sounds very interesting... but I'm not sure how he fits our niche. Haha.

VOTE HERE VOTE NOW.

Tada! Voting is HERE. Nothing fancy, and you don't need to put any personal info in. I'll update this post with the options as soon as I can fix a few coding problems...

You may only vote once on the poll. Authors may vote for their own books. ;-D

 It has come to my attention that some people were voting for the same book in each category through the fill-in option. These extra votes will only count in the category one placed them in, and will only be valid if over three people add that book in the fill-in option.





By Category, your options are:

Series

• Benjamin Pratt & The Keepers of the School by Andrew Clements
• The Red Blazer Girls by Michael D. Beil

Realism

• The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
• The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
• Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt
• Wonder Struck by Brian Selznick

Independant (Self-Published)

• Red Rain by Aubrey Hansen
• The Destiny Trilogy by Sarah Holman

Reader's Choice Wild Card

• The Charity's Diary Series by Elisabeth Allen
• The Pirate Daughter's Promise by Molly Evangeline
• Firmament: Radialloy by J. Grace Pennington

Tomorrow, tomorrow.

HEY READERS.

Tomorrow the poll will be open! You will be able to give your favorite books a vote of appreciation! It will be fantastic!

 As I said earlier, the voting now runs from July 15th to August 15th, 2012.

 There is also another surprise.

 There's a wild card category! Because I (Jess) was unable to get my act together, the lovely looking books that our blog readers suggested were not reviewed or officially nominated. So to make up for this, voters will have the option tomorrow of supporting one of these books:

• The Charity's Diary Series by Elisabeth Allen
• The Pirate Daughter's Promise by Molly Evangeline
• Firmament: Radialloy by J. Grace Pennington

That's it for now. I will be posting updates and news (plus a late review or two) later this week. If you would like to see another book on our wild card list, please comment on this post by this Tuesday. My final list will be updated on the 'nominations' page by tomorrow.

For the smaller updates and random polls, check out our Facebook and our Twitter.

Blessed,

-Jess

The Destiny Trilogy [nomination]

The Destiny of One

I don't think I have read many, if any, books that take place in outer-space before. So that is probably why at first it was kind of weird reading about life being so "normal" on another planet, but WOW was it ever a great book! I ended up not wanting to even put the book down!

The Destiny of a Few

And Sarah Holman's next book in the Destiny Trilogy was wonderful too! By that point I could hardly tear myself away from her story! I could not wait to read her third and last book in the Destiny Trilogy, and it was well worth the wait! It was amazing!

 The Destiny Trilogy is about Maria Morris, a young lady who was trying to figure out what destiny God had for her, and what to do with her life.
But when her parents go on a business trip for her Fathers job and ended up missing, Maria is entrusted with two long kept secret clues. She must try to find the last prince, and the crown jewels, from long ago when the last King of Earth ruled, back before Wyndemere I took over the Galaxy. But then to complicate matters Wyndemere II began making Christians be marked.
And while on a trip to another planet for her mission she is caught and marked. But since marked Christians were not allowed to travel from planet to planet, Maria might never be able to get home or finish her mission if she can not find a way to travel. And she has to finish her mission for the future of the galaxy. I would love to say more about what happens in the books but I would not want to accidentally give away any of the great twists and turns of the story! I really like how thought out the story is. It is great how you find clues and pieces to the puzzle right along with Maria. And it is so great how you see simple things happen that later in the story turn in to something big! And another thing I love about the Destiny Trilogy is that it is a believable story of people living on other planets. There is no super crazy stuff that's even silly for outer-space. And the characters are really well done, and some even have accents that are just perfect for them! It is just such a wonderful set of books, and I highly recommend them!

NOMINATED BY: LeAnne

The Destiny Trilogy  by Sarah Holman

Lulu Publishing,

Book 1, The Destiny Of One, 2011, Length Approx 206 pages.

Book 2, The Destiny Of A Few, 2011, Length Approx 227 pages.

Book 3, The Destiny Of A Galaxy, 2012, Length Approx 220 pages.

Age range ~ recommended to anyone who likes adventurer!

SELF-PUBLISHED

A copy of The Destiny of the Galaxy was provided to the VLA from the author.

Guest Post from Author Grace Pennington!

 That's right folks,the famous narrator is now a published author! This month J. Grace Pennington released the first book in her Firmament series, Radialloy. The series is about a young Christian girl who lives in a spaceship with her father.

Unfortunately, I did not have the time to read her book in time to review it for the VLA, but I would like to wholeheartedly welcome her to our blog to tell us about a subject that matters to many nerdy readers (and writers) like myself: novel titles.

By Any Other Name

One of the big questions that always comes up when writing a story is the matter of titles.  What are you going to call this story?  When someone asks, “What are you writing?” are you going to be stuck saying, “Well, it’s this story that’s sort of cool story in space about this girl who, like, helps her dad and stuff”?  Or are you going to be able to say “It’s a Christian young-adult novel called Radialloy”?

Which one is going to interest your potential reader more?

I love titles, and I love titling stories.  I’m particular to clever and short titles, and take great writerly delight in coming up with them.  Writing a series, however, adds a whole new level to titling.  Not only do the titles have to sound interesting and accurately represent the story, but there has to be a logic to them that transcends each book, extending to the series as a whole.

For my sci-fi Firmament series, I gave a lot of thought to the logic behind the titles of the individual books.  The first book, Radialloy was released earlier this month, and the other seventeen books are in various stages of revision, drafting, outlining, and planning.  Basically, the titles fall into two basic categories:  they are either named for the book’s theme, or its premise.

Radialloy is a word I created myself, for the central object of the story.  The next book, In His Image has to do with the theme, the significance of the idea that man is made in the image of God.  Machiavellian is the same way--the story’s theme addresses the Machiavellian principle of “the end justifies the means.”

Reversal Zone has to do with the premise.  Gestern is a word in another language that exemplifies the theme.  No Man also deals with the theme, as does Eleftheria, which is also another language.  Humanoid, interestingly, deals with both, as do Intoxication, Till Death Shall Part, Timestream and Wandering Jew.  Hypochondriac deals with the premise, Programming deals with both, Pandemonium with the premise, Phagocardiosis with both, and Myopia with the premise.  Stars, the last novel, deals with both.

Some of the titles and ideas are subject to change, but you get the idea.  Basically what I do is boil the story idea down until I have a direct theme and premise, then look at the two and first decide which I want to emphasize, which is the strongest and the most interesting.  Then I look for a word or a term or a short phrase that epitomizes the idea that will also be intriguing.  Sometimes it takes several tries.  What’s currently titled Gestern was originally called Vienna and has changed six times so far.  I’m still not sure whether it’s going to stay where it is now or not.  Radialloy was retitled multiple times, and was called Never be Shaken for almost a year (for reasons that no longer have anything to do with the story).   So sometimes, titling is a process, rather than a simple lightbulb moment.

There are also those rare titles that come to me first, begging for a story.  Myopia and Pandemonium were both of that type, and I worked out premises and themes for them.  But more often I have the story and must go hunting for the perfect title to go with it.

I love titling, but that doesn’t make it easy for me.  Sometimes I’m about ready to bash my poor, tired head against the computer screen in frustration while searching in vain for the perfect word or combination of words.  But the moment when you find the right one, the moment where suddenly it fits, and it’s perfect makes every second of frustration incredibly worth it, and it will make a huge difference in making people interested in your story.

 Now that you are standing in awe of her mature and knowledgeable creativity with writing, go check out her book on Amazon already! (Radialloy on Amazon) The excerpt is utterly delightful and reduced me to giggles with the utterance of the line... "The eagle has CRASHED!"

 You should also check out her Twitter page.

Red Rain by Aubrey Hansen [nomination]

Red Rain is the premier novel from Aubrey Hansen. The book is a Science Fiction/Mystery set in the year 2148, after the one world government has successfully piled all of the Christian families into internment camps. Anyone with a religion or faith in God was sent to live in one, unless they signed a document of agreement that they will never talk about it again. The story is in the point of view of a seventeen year old Christian girl, Philadelphia. Her father is a scientist.

At first it seemed like this was an average end-times/dystopian plot, but there was something about the way that Ms. Hansen wrote this book... I couldn't stop reading the sample chapter, and then I found out there was an audio book, and listened to the whole thing until three in the morning. Every time you think you know where it's going to go, you don't. And then you get to the middle of the book, and you get blown away. And then you get to the next chapter, and it happens again. She just has a way of putting it that sounds new and gets you trembling near the end, and you love every minute of it. Some complain that the ending was too rushed (probably to leave openings for sequels), but it seemed alright, and the last paragraph was so brilliant, I didn't get it until thirty seconds after I finished reading. The characters develop through to the last page!

Some of you may know I'm the last person to read science fiction. So when I kept hearing about the book, I shrugged it off. WARNING: If you are one of those genre snots like me, do NOT pass up this book because of it. And if you think you're too good for the book because it doesn't have a Lucy Maud Montgomery or Charles Dickens writing style (I.E. flowery), then you are a stick in the mud and I need to give you a frowny face sticker (and you're probably the only person on Amazon that voted it one star). Because the simplistic writing style actually COMPLIMENTS the setting, and the whole thing. You'll be smacking your head.

What I really appreciate about this book is that for the first time in years, even though I thought the plot was predictable, I couldn't guess a single thing that was going to happen. That was more shocking than anything else. Haha. Also, Philly relies on God to get her through hard times in a way that is more satisfying than most Christian fiction books.

And in case your wondering, there ARE a few nit picks or minor plot snags, but they weren't significant enough to remember.

In September of 2011 she self-published the novella, made a snazzy audio book narrated by Grace Pennington (I cannot recommend that ENOUGH, it was so amazing), and has successfully made it big--big enough that many of the blogs I went on had a promotional button for it since it came out. I finally caved in January and 'read' it, and it was totally worth it.

Have you read this book? Post your thoughts and discuss by making a comment.

NOMINATED BY: Jessie V.

Red Rain by Aubrey Hansen

CreateSpace, 2011, Length 94 pages, Age Range 12+ "mild thematic elements and some action-violence" (but I didn't think it was that bad)

Science Fiction (YA/Teen)