The WORST Day at the Beach. EVER.

This post isn't about reading, crafting or baking, but I felt like a rant. Oh my God. Yesterday we had a geography trip to the beach. And if any of you saw the weather for the British coast, you'll instantly feel sorry for me. For all you guys that didn't, here's how it basically went down:

We got to beach numero uno to discover that there was literally NOTHING there but rocks. Nada. Zero. Zilch. All went well for about half an hour...

Then it started to rain. We all got wet.

However, the, quote, "passing shower", was fairly short-lived, and we soon crawled out of whatever cave we were sheltering in to trudge back to the main beach. Measuring pebbles. Fun, right?

After another 45 mins ish of dryness, it started raining again.

No, scratch that. Then it started absolutely chucking it down by the bucketful. We were SOAKED to the BONE!! It was really windy too, so umbrellas were more of a hindrance than a help.

Time to get back on the coach and go to beach number two. This beach was nice and sandy, but, surprise surprise, it rained yet again. No, it didn't. IT HAILED!!! The wind was blowing it around like tiny daggers piercing the backs of your legs. And all the shops and cafes were closed except one, which was apparently like 10 miles down the beach from the coach. No shelter :(

We had to hike like 5 miles down the sand before we could do the work and hike back the five miles to the coach. Again, dripping. I was literally wringing out my clothes.

Don't you just LOVE the english weather?

So I guess it's fairly safe to say that the most fun part of the trip was the coach journey. So thank you so much, Meg Cabot, for writing a book I have read over 6 times and still adore. I don't know what I would have done without Suze and Jesse to keep me company ;) Read it cover to cover on the way to and from our "fun day at the seaside."

I'm never going back. Ever. You'll have to kill me first.

So, what was your last trip to the beach like? I bet it can't get any worse than that. If it can, I'd like to hear it.

And They Lived as Happily As They Could - A Guest Post by Author Joy Preble

Hello, blog readers! Yes, I know. I haven't blogged in AGES. And no, I wasn't lying when I told you to expect something in a few days, the plans changed. I'm sorry :(

And I have been sooooooo busyyyyyyyyy lately! So much homework. It's ridiculous. Stupid GCSEs of impending doom.

My mind has been wandering to this all day long. Is it really sad that all I could think of in chemistry was that "Ethane" is one letter away from "Ethan"?

Yeah. But it's still my favourite compound ;)

But now I'm here so lets get to it! I am, once again, for the AF blog tour, welcoming my very favourite author Joy Preble (Dreaming Anastasia, Haunted, Anastasia Forever and The Sweet Dead Life, coming may 2013 from SOHO PRESS!) Today Joy is telling us about happily ever after, and why it is overrated (I totally agree. The gorier, the better. And people should pay for their mistakes.):

And They Lived as Happily as They Could:

Writing a Crazy Russian Novel Saga

Joy Preble

(Author of the DREAMING ANASTASIA series, Sourcebooks: DREAMING ANASTASIA, 2009; HAUNTED, 2011; ANASTASIA FOREVER, 2012)

Russian fairy tales are not like the Disney ones. (Full disclosure: neither are the original Grimm’s Brothers tales. In the Grimm version of Cinderella, for example, those little birds peck out the stepsisters’ eyes on Cinderella’s wedding day. And to fit into that glass slipper? Those same crazy nut job stepsisters slice off their heels and toes. Yeah. Really.)

But let’s get back to that HEA thing. Happily Ever After. Everyone wants one, right?

Not the Russian tales. They mostly end with some variation of  “And they lived as happily as they could.” Which is not the same at all. But to me, much juicier and satisfying to work with. Because it means that I can make my characters sort of happy, maybe even very happy. But they’re going to have to suffer first. And I really like that.

Honestly, I’m not a fan of stories – movies, books, TV – where the main character gets her/his HEA without really earning it. Or even a ‘clean getaway’ from whatever bad stuff they perpetrated during the course of the story. Like the film version of Jurassic Park, for example. I love that movie. Those dinos still scare the pee out of me. But the sweet grandfatherly John Hammond in the movie who created the park and cloned that dino DNA? In the book he was a greedy CEO bastard who gets eaten by those very same dinos in the end. Because. He. Deserves. It.

In Spielberg’s movie? Not so much. He lives on for the sequel. And cause he’s a grandpa. But he’s done this really bad thing. And he should. Suffer. More. At least in my humble opinion.

All this informed my writing of the DREAMING ANASTASIA series and my plotting of the series arc once I knew for sure that this would indeed get to stretch over three books. (And actually, even before I knew. Some things you have to know even if you’re not going to get to use them. Which fortunately I did.)

Without giving away what happens in ANASTASIA FOREVER (which you are totally going to love, I know!), let me say that it was important to me that Anne and Ethan got their HEA, but I wanted them to earn it. Anne’s best friend, Tess, too. But there are many things in the novels for which there are no easy fixes. (Slight spoiler alert: If you have not read any of the books, I’m to give away a bit here, but nothing too major) Anne’s brother is still going to be dead. Her grandmother, even if Anne manages to break her mermaid curse, is still going to have suffered all that she suffered. Ethan is still going to have lost people he loved and made some dunderheaded mistakes for which he is paying and will continue to pay. Etc. etc.

All of which is why I decided that it was time in book 3 to go backward a bit and have Anne, Tess and Ethan do a little time travel. More than a little, actually. Because through the past we learn everything that’s at stake in the present. And when the HEA finally gets there – well, I think both the readers and the characters have the deepest appreciation possibly of what they’ve gained and what they’ve lost.

Maybe it’s those cold winters. Maybe it’s something else. But those Russians know their storytelling. I’m proud to follow their pattern in ANASTASIA FOREVER!

 Thank you, Joy, once again, for your words of wisdom. How about you guys? Do you agree that HEA is so last season? Or are you a traditionalist? I'm a bit of both. Suffering, with an EARNED Happily Ever After at the very end. And for the love of Pete, all you listening authors out there - no cliffhangers at the end of a series! I HATE that. Hate.

 If you haven't already read ANASTASIA FOREVER, I REALLY recommend you go check it out! You don't even HAVE to read the 2 previous books - it's a fantastic stand-alone read too! Although that said, you will enjoy it more having read Dreaming Anastasia and Haunted. But each to his own.

I'm rereading it for the third time and it's STILL AWESOME! The jokes are still hilarious! I'm spotting stuff like foreshadowing that I didn't get the past 2 times. I could go on and on. But it's far better to learn through living than listening. So if you have an ipod/iphone, download the sample from ibooks COMPLETELY FREE!! I'm sure you can get it on kindle too, but I don't have one of those. Yet.

You will be dying to read the book after that! I promise! There are some sad weepy bits in there, I won't lie to you. But even the bits where I had to put the book down to avoid getting tears on it (I'm REALLY obsessive about keeping my books gorgeous. Like Monica-obsessive. Ask anyone. And this was my SIGNED ARC!!! My precious...) were nothing short of SPELLBINDING! (get it? Magical witch powers?)

So, goodbye, my wonderful minions. And Holly, hurry up and finish Strange Angels already!!!! >:( 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :)