Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I wish would get their own book

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.


This is such a cool idea for a post! There are so many interesting side characters I'd like to know more about!

As always, my top ten are in no particular order.


Abby from Katie McGarry's Crash Into You
She's tough, I like her, and she definitely has a story to tell. I actually thought the fourth book in the series would be hers but so far it doesn't seem to be happening.


Gavriel from Holly Black's The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
I'd love to know more about his past before he met Tana! We do get some of his backstory but I'd like to hear it from his own point of view.


Sturmhond from the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo
One of my favorite characters there! I'd love to hear more about his days as a pirate or when he served in the army. Or really just a glimpse into his mind.


Durzo Blint from the Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks
He is such a prominent character but a big enigma for a large part of the series. I'd like him to get his own novel. Or a prequel trilogy. I know there's a novella that looks into his life, but it's short and I haven't read it yet.


Noah from the Mara Dyer Trilogy by Michelle Hodkin
He's such a great character! I think I could listen to what goes on in his head for hours. And well, it's implied that his life before he met Mara was already eventful. So there'd be no shortness of story to tell.

 
Walter C. Dornez from the Hellsing manga series by Hirano Kouta
That guy is so badass. I always loved his fighting scenes! I really wish the author would continue the Hellsing: The Dawn series about Walter and Alucard's adventures when he was younger, during WWII. So much sass.


Fear from Kelsey Sutton's Some Quiet Place
He was great. I know he features prominently in the novel but I'd like to know what it all looks like from where he's standing.


Morpheus from A.G. Howard's Splintered series
He's one of my favorite characters. You never know what he's playing at. His head would be a... madly interesting place.


Ivy from the Hollows series by Rachel Harrison
I'm sort of cheating here because I think the graphic novel adaption of the series (which I haven't read) is from Ivy's perspective. She's awesome. And I've read a short story from her POV but I'd like to see more. Maybe also of her past with Kisten and growing up under the eyes of Piscary.


Zero from the Vampire Knight manga series by Matsuri Hino
I admit it. I was a Kaname person for quite a while, but at some point I did a 180. And when I re-watched the anime and re-read part of the manga... oh Zero, my heart aches for you. Such a great character, so much undeserved pain. Seems to be a thing with side characters.


Despite thinking the topic is awesome, this was actually harder than I thought it would be. So many great characters have already gotten their own book / spin off series / novella! (Adrian from Vampire Academy, Space and Mencheres from the Night Huntress series, Mae from The Demon's Lexicon, Tod from the Soul Screamers series, Warner from Shatter Me...) Or else it's the mystery that makes them so interesting and so I am hesitant about wanting to read about it all.
What do you think of my picks, and how did you fare with your own?

Book Trailer Reveal: Hellhole, by Gina Damico

Hey guys :)

Today I've got something special for you, namely the book trailer for Gina Damico's upcoming novel Hellhole. I love her Croak trilogy - it's about reapers, but these books are also among the funniest things I've ever read! So much quirky, sarcastic humor. Plus, I love the book trailer for Croak (it's what first brought the series to my attention), so  I jumped at the chance to help reveal the trailer for Gina's newest book, which will be out in January.


But before we get to the video, here's some more info on the book and author

Release date: January 6, 2015
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover / ebook, 368 pages

Description
Geeky, squeaky-clean Max Kilgore only has one dirty habit: digging for fossils. One day, to his horror, his shovel strikes not upon a dinosaur bone, but a pit to hell—and out of it comes a devil. Specifically, the kind of devil who eats a lot of junk food, watches a lot of reality television, plays a lot of video games, and refuses to leave Max’s basement. But evil is still evil, no matter what form it takes. And Max has to find a way to comply with the demands of the big red menace, lest he lay waste to everyone and everything Max cares about.

With the help of Lore, a former goth girl who knows a thing or two about the dark side, Max goes in search of a new abode for his unwanted guest. Finding a place where he can reside in luciferian luxury isn’t easy, but Max has strong motivation: his mother, whose terminal illness the devil promises to cure if Max gives him what he wants. Lore has her doubts about making a deal with the devil, but Max will stop at nothing to save his mom. And pretty soon, he’s doing things the good kid he once was would never dream of doing. Clearly, hanging around with a devil is a bad influence. But how can Max get rid of the guy without incurring the wrath of hell?

Amazon    Barnes&Noble    IndieBound

ABOUT GINA DAMICO
I grew up under four feet of snow in Syracuse, New York. I received a degree in theater and sociology from Boston College, and I have since worked as a tour guide, transcriptionist, theater house manager, scenic artist, movie extra, office troll, retail monkey, yarn hawker and breadmonger. I am the author of the grim-reapers-gone-wild books of the Croak trilogy (Croak, Scorch, and Rogue), published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and the upcoming Hellhole (January 2015). I live in Western Massachusetts with my husband, two cats, one dog, and while I have never visited hell in person, I have spent countless waking hours at the Albany Regional Bus Terminal, which is pretty darn close.

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Alright, and now without further ado...

Get to Know Me: Words Words Words

Hey there, and welcome to another personal post where I talk about stuff that I do outside of blogging. Today is all about what I will be doing for the rest of November. I think the word 'November' is already a clue for many of you - I'm doing NaNoWriMo again. That's why I've been absent for the past half week - I've been preparing, and I wanted to start NaNo with 15k words already written on my project. I only managed 14,300-something because I spontaneously went to a Halloween event on Friday, but I caught up yesterday. It was a great first day - I wrote over 3,000 words even though I only started around 6pm.

I did my first NaNo in 2011 with a reduced goal of 30k instead of 50k. I thought I was writing a short story to warm up. Ahem. Yeah, turned out it was the first book in what I guess will at some point be a trilogy. I wrote 66k in November, and another 40k until the end of January, when I finished the novel plus a novella set in the same world. For all of that November, I felt like I was floating. Writing made me so ridiculously happy and I felt like I was part of something big and wonderful.

I was busy in 2012 though and never really got around to revising that novel. I know that there are a lot of things that need fixing. So when I wanted to write the sequel in NaNo 2012, it didn't work out. I wasn't fully committed and didn't have the time, so NaNo 2012 was a fail. Last year I was super busy with my MA thesis, so I didn't even try.

This year though. This year I am so motivated! I felt listless these past few months but lately I suddenly have so much energy and I feel stoked about writing and my project :D I feel like this year, I can do it again. I have a brand new story with me, with characters that I love and that surprise me. I'm so excited to go on this journey with them and figure out what happens! My goal is for this novel to be between 70 to 85k, and I'd like it to be a standalone. I don't know if I can wrap everything up that quickly though because that would mean I've got almost 25% written already and I feel like I'm nowhere yet. But we'll see. This time around, I'm not planning on abandoning the story once the fun part (the draft writing) is over. If in any way possible, I want it to have a beautiful cover and see the light of day.

Is anyone else doing NaNoWriMo this year or has attempted it in the past? What is your experience? Does it work for you? Is it too much pressure? Let me know in the comments :)