Book Buying Moratorium

Here's the thing.
I love the idea of a TBR list, but seriously....I'm an emotional reader, a mood-reader. So having a stack of books that must be read in a certain order just isn't going to work and it wouldn't be fair to the books I'm reading, because I'll resent them.
It has occurred to me that my shelves, both physical and digital, are full of books that I purchased or was given but have not read. There are enough of them to offer the requisite diversity to keep me from getting edgy or resentful.
It might very nearly kill me and I will have to avoid the used bookstore like it's that girl I went to high school with who is fresh-faced as she drops her kids off at school at 7:30 in the morning and is still thin as a stick... Small-town life is a constant high school reunion, but I digress.
No more book buying until I read all these dang books.
A sample of the list around me:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (started, didn't finish, guess I will)
Water for Elephants
Shinju
The Likeness
Fallen
Vintage Affair
Galway Bay
The Yellow House
Bitterroot Crossing
Hideaway - Koontz
all of my Charlaine Harris and Vince Flynn books....


Sigh, this could take awhile.

Excuses, Excuses, and my July TBR

Only 2 Days Left!

There are only two days remaining in the giveaway for Filter: Book One of The von Strassenberg Saga. (see sidebar--->) And, since more than 500 people have entered to win the 5 signed copies of Filter, I will also be giving Advanced Readers' Copies of The BlueStocking Girl: Book Two of The von Strassenberg Saga, to the winners upon the novel's completion (those copies won't arrive until Octoberish)! 
This is not your typical YA series, think more of if Dean Koontz wrote Wuthering Heights. See earlier posts for sample chapters! 
Also, you should know, that if you happen to not win this giveaway there will be another in September, prior to the release of The BlueStocking Girl, after all book 2 will not make sense if you haven't read book 1. This is not a stand-alone kind of series. Each book is vital to the next and even to the previous...which you will discover as the series continues. So if you want to know what's going on with future giveaways follow my blog or join me on Facebook, look for The von Strassenberg Saga page. 
Good luck! I can't wait to see who wins! 

Almost There!

We have almost reached that magical 500 point for The von Strassenberg Giveaway (see sidebar)! If we reach 500 I will  send Filter (book one) now and Advanced Readers' Copies of Book 2 (before it is available to random citizens...probably around October) to the 5 winners! Also, as a side note and a bit of a warning to readers, I am more Dean Koontz than Stephanie Meyer. When I was a teen girl we didn't have a lot of money, so I usually wound up borrowing books from my father's library. This was mostly comprised of Koontz, Grisham and Patterson. In my grade school-middle school years I never read Sweet Valley High but rather preferred Lois Duncan and Carolyn Keene and Christopher Pike. So if you want an idea of what you're signing up to win, imagine if Dean Koontz wrote Wuthering Heights...it's something like that. I have stopped listing The von Strassenberg Saga as a romance, people expect certain things of a romance that you won't find in these books. While there is a strong romantic element, this is, after all, a family saga. And what good would a family saga be if everything went perfectly.....
If you're a pessimistic sort of person or just plain impatient, you can buy Filter at Amazon  (or for less...$10...at Barnes and Noble http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Filter/Gwenn-Wright/e/9781461053002?itm=1&USRI=gwenn%2Bwright)

Writing YA Christian lit or Not.

I did not grow up in a Christian home. My parents weren't druggies or alcoholics or abusive. We were just a typical lower middle class family struggling to make it work. My mother stayed at home with us until I was in first or second grade. She then took a job with a maid service. For the first time my sisters and I were given an allowance. As the youngest, I was paid the least for my labor which included dusting and vacuuming. It was $5. And it was enough. A new bookstore had opened in the recently developed strip mall across the street that ran behind our home. The bookstore was the only thing that made the destruction of the farmland acceptable in my mind. I was maybe 8 or 9 at the beginning. Each Friday I would take my $5 and walk to the bookstore. Back then $5 was just enough to buy two paperbacks. This was when I fell in love with Lois Duncan and Christopher Pike. No, there were no Sweet Valley High books for me. My friends were all reading them, but not me, never a one. I was a Nancy Drew girl, a mystery and thriller girl. When I was 10 I discovered what I consider to be the original Twilight series, The Vampire Diaries, LJ Smith. And by the way, the WB series does the book series a great injustice. I read all of Duncan and Smith and Pike and usually read book more than once. When I became a Christian at the age of 15 I was reading Dean Koontz and my Bible and occasionally Stephen King. Seem like a conflict of interest? Indeed. But what else was I supposed to read? Christian fiction at the time left much to be desired. It was poorly written and cheesy to say the least. Recently when I started writing my own YA novel I struggled with this. I wanted to write something Christian parents would approve of and Christian and non-Christian terms would enjoy. Oh but we have Twilight, you say. Um no. While Edward insisting on waiting until marriage to have sex is great and my favorite thing about the entire series, it doesn't override the fact that Bella's entire existence, she thought, hinged on Edward. That's stupid. And unhealthy. While most of my characters are not Christians, they struggle with their morals and with the morals of their Christian friends. But that isn't the focus of the story. It is a thriller after all. And honestly I didn't write it with any moral in mind. My goal was to write a romantic thriller for teens that didn't involve vampires or zombies or werewolves or this ridiculous notion that a girl's life should revolve around a boy. Injecting my Christian faith into the story was tricky. I didn't want to lay it on too thick but I didn't want to ignore it. I'm the end I think a happy balance was found but you would have to be the judge of that. Look for my ebooks Filter at amazon.com or smashwords.com.