EXPRESS YOURSELF--FAVORITE COUPLES...

Hey guys,

I've been meaning to participate in Express Yourself for awhile now, but I kept getting sidetracked. Anyway, I finally managed to get my act together and remember this week! haha. If you guys are interested Express Yourself is a weekly meme hosted by Jackie Felger at Bouquet of Books and Dani at Entertaining Interests. 

As you can see by the picture, each week they ask a different fun and interesting question.

This weeks question is: Who is your favorite couple? They can be fictional, historical or even present day.

Being a bit of a romance junkie, I think this is an awesome question. Since I read mostly YA, the first couples to come to mind were both from my favorite YA books: The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices, by Cassandra Clare.

Let me start by saying I absolutely adore Jace and Clary from The Mortal Instruments. They are just so damn in love, but nothing is ever easy for them. Every time they start to catch a break, fate chucks another monkey-wrench right at their heads. It's always a blast to read about their struggle to remain true to each other while fighting the forces of evil. :) Plus, Jace is your classic bad boy saved by the love of a good woman, and I can never seem to resist that.
“There is no pretending,” Jace said with absolute clarity. “I love you, and I will love you until I die and if there’s a life after that, I’ll love you then.”

Tied with them for my favorite couple are Will and Tessa from Infernal Devices. Or do I mean Jem and Tessa? Crap! I can never choose!!

Although I normally don't really enjoy love triangles, this particular one is so well done I'm totally captivated. The fact that Will and Jem love each other just as much as they love Tessa gives this "love triangle" an added dimension that I haven't seen done before--or at least not done anywhere near this well.

Plus, normally, in these situations, it's disgustingly clear who the girl will choose. This isn't like a Twilight thing where everyone always knew that Bella would choose creepy-ass sparkly-icicle Edward over  fun-loving, hot-as-hell Jacob.  hehe...sorry...I digress...

I can't believe I found a Game of Thrones/Infernal Devices
reference. I couldn't resist!!!

In this particular triangle, it's impossible to see what choice Tessa will make. I honestly believe she's in love with both these boys. (And I'm highly impressed that Cassandra Clare somehow made a situation I wouldn't normally believe possible seem perfectly feasible.) Plus, no matter who Tessa chooses, nobody is walking away in one piece. The whole tragedy of it all makes for irresistible reading.

Honestly, now that I've been forced to really think about this...I've decided my second choice for favorite "couple" is Jem and Will. I'm fully aware that these two are not romantically in love. But the friendship and brotherhood between them is just as compelling as any love story I've ever read. In fact, it's Jem and Will's friendship, even more than their love for Tessa, that keeps me fully invested in these books.

“But—but...” Will sputtered.
“Oh, leave it,” said Jem, kicking Will, not without affection, lightly on the ankle.
“She annexed my plan!”
“Will,” Tessa said firmly. “Do you care more about the plan being enacted or about getting credit for it?”
Will pointed a finger at her. “That,” he said. “The second one.” 
― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince

So, what about you guys? Who are some other great couples you love?

Infernal Devices Craft and fun story about the amazingness of Cassandra Clare

Hi guys!

I have a cool story I wanted to tell about one of my all time favorite writers-- Cassandra Clare. Right around this time last year, Cassie had a contest for a signed ARC of Clockwork Prince. The point of the contest was to make something (a book cover, a video, song, dance, drawing, poem etc...) literally anything creative that showed how much you love the book, "Clockwork Angel." 

My son and I both entered. (Along with a TON of other entries)  Unfortunately, something went wrong with the site that was hosting her contest, so--even though I got the entries in on time--the hosting website marked them as past the cut-off date. Cassandra Clare never even saw them.

I'd worked hard on my entry, which I'm getting ready to show you in a few minutes.  But, Chance's (my son's) was on a whole different level. He'd spent weeks filming himself with the book in places he wasn't  supposed to be--a concept only a teenage boy could come up with. haha.

 I ended up writing to Cassie Clare, explaining the situation, and asking her if she could watch Chance's video. At that point, the prizes had already been announced. I explained that I wasn't trying to be a complaining parent and I understood the mix-up wasn't her fault. I didn't want her to re-vote on the contest or something. I just wanted Chance to know that his favorite author had at least seen the contest entry he'd worked so hard on. I sent her the link.

I got this email back from her ten minutes later:

Dear Tammy,

You are absolutely right. It did look like the video came in after the cutoff date. 

And you are also right. It is a fantastic video. Chance clearly put a huge amount of effort into it and I'm glad you called my attention to it. It deserved a first prize and it should get one.

I've edited the post that states the winners and I will figure out *some way* to get him a copy of the new book if I have to print it out myself!

And don't worry, you don't sound complainy. Sometimes moms think the things their kids do are fantastic just because they are their moms. Sometimes they're right. :)

Cassie

Chance was SO happy. This all happened a year ago, but I really wanted to put it on my blog now that I finally have one. 

So--without further ado--here is the  video that ended up winning first place in Cassie's ARC contest! If you take a couple minutes to watch, you should really put it on full screen, otherwise you miss a lot of the cooler details.

Below, I put a lot of pics of my contest entry. I didn't ask Cassie to look at that one (I didn't want to sound too pushy. haha) So I don't think she ever even saw it because of the mix-up with the host site. But that's cool, cause I had fun making it and now it's hanging on my wall and it inspired me to make more. I want to eventually have different book canvases all over my bedroom. So, this is my first one. 

 I don't know how much detail you can see, but it's very steampunk. It's got all the clocks around it. The writing in the middle is from a poem about the Thames River that the book started with. The entire book, I was so immersed in London I could practically feel the rain dripping off the pages. Since the Thames is such an integral part of that atmosphere, I wanted to include the poem --and also, the blue on the bottom represents the river itself. The skyline is London. Then there is Will on one side, Jem on the other. The clock has Tessa's face and the clock hands are pointing to either boy. 

***

This is a closer view of Jem's side. You can see a hint of the box he keeps his medicine in. I actually researched how the box was described in the book and found a picture of it online. the sliver stuff around Jem is--of course--the drugs. If you look closely, you can see that Jem is holding his violin and his hair is silver.

***

Below is a close up of Tessa's clockwork angel necklace and Jem's Kwan-Yin box.

***

Below is a  close-up of Will's side. If you look, you can see the  cup that is traditionally used in churches. The water splashing down from the cup and around Will is, of course, holy water. Anyone who's read the books will get the reference

***

Below is a closer shot of the ouroboros--the two headed snake eating itself. In this picture, it's surrounding a few things. One is a mirror with a question mark on it. As Tessa has her ability to transform, this felt like a fitting symbol for her. The other things are the items Tessa  used to transform with throughout the course of the story.

One: The pink hair-ribbon from the Emma

Two: Jessamine's ring

Three: Camille's necklace. You can't see it in this picture but I put the words that are engraved on Camille's ruby necklace around the necklace I made. It was nowhere near as fancy, but it got the point across.

This is just a closer shot of the clock with Tessa on it.

All the clocks, the ouroboros, the clockwork angel, the roses, the river and most of the gearwork surrounding the picture were crafted from clay, baked, painted, decoupaged and shellacked.

FINAL SHOT OF CANVAS....HOPE YOU GUYS LIKED IT

P.S. I'm still in the kissing scene contest over at LUV YA  If you haven't voted yet, please go over there. This is the second to final week. If I make it through this week, I go against whoever won the Kiss Off contest. I'm super excited to have made it this far so please vote. I can't tell you which one is mine, but I can hope it's good enough for you to pick it on your own!! :)

P.S.S. Also, I didn't even really make a respectable showing in the Ghostly Blog Hop. Sniff. Anyone who hasn't read BEYOND and would like to leave their vote on it, that would be awesome. The contest only goes on until the thirtieth. I don't expect to win, but I don't want to be crushed. Please help me out and vote!! haha

P.S.S.S. Lastly, I'm still offering free first page critiques for anyone who goes over to I AM ALWAYS WRITE  to congratulate my critique partner on getting signed. YAY for Karen!!! If you'd like to put a congrats post up for her on your own blog, I'll critique your first chapter. :) If you'd like to know why you want a critique from me, click HERE. on. If you go over to her blog and leave a comment there, make sure to tell me if you want a critique. You can send your first page to tamaradwalsh  "at" yahoo "." com