Celebrating Debutantes 2017: Kat Greene Comes Clean by Melissa Roske (Movie Cast + Giveaway)

Happy Wednesday to all! I am thrilled to have debut author Melissa Roske here on the blog today as part of Celebrating Debutantes 2017 event. Melissa will be sharing to us her casting pick for her upcoming middle grade novel, Kat Greene Comes Clean. The book releases next week, don’t forget to buy copies.

To know more about Melissa and Kat Greene Comes Clean, check the author’s bio and book’s description that follows after the guest post. There are also links where you can catch up with the author or where to pre-order copies of the book. And if you are from the US or Canada and would like to take a chance in winning a copy of the book and swags, there’s a giveaway at the end of this post. Just enter the rafflecopter form. But before that, here’s Melissa with her casting pick for Kat Greene Comes Clean. Enjoy!

Kat Greene Comes Clean Movie Cast

Kat Greene—Ruby Barnhill
Best known for her role in The BFG, the 2016 movie based on Roald Dahl’s beloved middle-grade novel, Barnhill captures Kat’s easy charm and spunky personality. Plus she’s completely adorable—just like Kat!

Mom—Jayma Mays
Not only is Mays wearing Mom’s signature overalls in this photo, she is a brilliant actress who can play comic and dramatic roles equally well. She scores extra points for portraying a TV character with OCD—Emma Pillsbury, the high-school guidance counselor, in the long-running series, Glee—in an accurate and fair manner.

Halle Maklansky—Amandla Stenberg

Stenberg, who is best known for her portrayal of Rue in the 2012 adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel, The Hunger Games, has a warm playful in her eye—just as I imagine Kat’s BFF, Halle, would.

Sam Teitelbaum—Sean Giambrone
his versatile actor is best known for playing Adam Goldberg in the TV series The Goldbergs, and he looks exactly the way I imagined Kat’s friend Sam would: happy, with curly hair and glasses, and a “wide-face-splitting grin.” Perfect!

Michael McGraw—Jason Bonnell
Bonnel’s movies aren’t exactly child-friendly (his latest film, Adam K, is about an insurance-salesman-turned-serial killer), but he bears an uncanny physical resemblance—in my mind—to Halle’s crush, the cute-but-dim Michael McGraw.

Olympia Rabinowitz — Anne Lamott
I actually had the writer Anne Lamott in mind when I wrote Olympia’s character (“Her hair is the color of orange Kool-Aid and styled in lots of skinny braids”), so even though I’m not choosing an actor to portray Olympia, the psychologist at Kat’s hippie-dippy school, I think it works!

Dad—Ben Affleck.
Affleck is able to pull off a wide variety of roles, from a mild-mannered accountant to Batman. So why not Kat’s dad too?

Barbara—Julia Roberts.
Like Jayma Mays, Roberts is known for playing both comic and dramatic roles. In the book, Kat’s stepmom, Barbara, has a good sense of humor, but she also has to have a firm grip on her son, Henry, who can be a “real handful.”

Henry—William Watkins.
I actually found this cutie-pie by googling “three-year-old child actors”! He would be excellent as Kat’s little brother, Henry—and he’s wearing a superhero T-shirt and little-kid Converse. Love it!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melissa Roske is a writer of contemporary middle-grade fiction. Before spending her days with imaginary people, Melissa interviewed real ones, as a journalist in Europe. In London, she landed a job as an advice columnist for Just Seventeen magazine, where she answered hundreds of letters from readers each week. Upon returning to her native New York, Melissa contributed to several books and magazines, selected jokes for Reader’s Digest, and got certified as a life coach. She lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with her husband, daughter, and the occasional dust bunny.

Find Melissa

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Book Details:

Title: Kat Greene Comes Clean
Author: Melissa Roske
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Publication Date: August 22, 2017
Pages: 224
Format: Hardcover, eBook

Eleven-year-old Kat Greene has a lot on her pre-rinsed plate, thanks to her divorced mom’s obsession with cleaning. When Mom isn’t scrubbing every inch of their Greenwich Village apartment, she’s boiling the silverware or checking Kat’s sheets for bedbugs. It’s enough to make any sane middle schooler crazy! Add friendship troubles to the mix, a crummy role in the school play, and Mom’s decision to try out for Clean Sweep, a TV game show about cleaning, and what have you got? More trouble than Kat can handle. At least, without a little help from her friends. 

 

Book Links

Amazon | B&N | BAM | Book Depository | Goodreads | Publisher

Giveaway:

What’s up for Grab?

• Copy of Kat Greene Comes Clean by Melissa Roske and
• Bookmarks & Stickers
  

The Rules:

• Open to US/CA
• There will be one (1) lucky winner
• Winner will be chosen and announced by rafflecopter
• Winner will be contacted thru email & should response within 48 hours
• Ends September 6th, 2017
• Prizes will be sent by the author

To enter fill out the rafflecopter form

Good Luck!!!

Treat yourself to a complete #CelebratingDebutantes2017 experience. Click the image below for the full list of schedule and links to each feature post or check out twitter and facebook using #CelebratingDebutantes2017.

 

2016 Reading & Blogging Goals

I’m back and hopefully more appearance than the past few months! Sorry for being MIA, there are just so many things that happened before 2015 ends like the wedding of one of my best friend which makes me super busy being a Maid of Honor, then there’s also the holidays and other life’s obligations. But now that I’m back I’m very much excited to share to all of you my 2016 reading and blogging plans.

Unlike last year where my reading and blogging plans was more “go with the flow” this year I’m actually lay-outing a more detailed plans with the push of my closest reading buddy Precious of Fragments of Life. Together we are organizing a blog event called “Celebrating Debutantes 2016”, wherein we are featuring debut authors of 2016 and their works. Since I love meeting new authors and discovering great talents I am actually excited to host this event with Precious.

Precious and I also targeting literary titles as part of our monthly reads this 2016. With a goal to try different genre than our usual YA fantasy or contemporary read we are trying a more mature/serious tone of reads. We already picked our target tiles for each month so watch out for our reviews.

As for my goodreads reading challenge this year, I’m back to 100 books to read. Last year I tried to cut it down to 50 books expecting for a more lay low reading in 2015, then eventually changed it to 100 since I am reading more than I targeted. I’m happy to report that I did finished the 100 books goals for 2015. Let’s see how I will perform for this year.

That’s all for now, will have to layout other plans too beside reading and blogging for 2016.

I hope everyone’s 2016 is getting off to a great start! Happy New Year to all!!!

2015 Reading & Blogging Goals

Happy 2015 Everyone! How’s everyone year so far? I hope 2015 brings us all good cheers and blessings. 2015 is actually kicking pretty fast for me, it’s just few days since the year started but I feel like I’m in the fast lane already doing all the planning and other work related stuff. I foreseeing the year to be very busy which push me to decide to alter my blogging and reading plans. Instead of pushing myself with all the reading goals and challenges like what I do every year, I decided to cut all the goals for 2015 and just let the tides flow for me. No tight goals or concrete plans but to enjoy blogging and reading.

I’ve already cut my goodreads reading challenge goal to half – from the usual 100 books per year I’m doing a 50 books this year. I’m also hoping to read most the books from my shelves and lessened my habit of acquiring new books without having definite plans or timeline of reading them because I’m usually stack with my for review pile. As for getting books for review, just like last year, I will continue to stop requesting book for review. If I get an offer to review books I will consider them but will only accepts those books I think that I will really like or will definitely love. I’m also cutting joining review tour this year – this one will be bit hard since I’m one of the admins of a local book tour site but I’ll still try.

I’m going back reading more non-fictions books too beside those usual required reading for work. Last time I checked, the nonfiction area of my shelve is almost non-existence compare to the volumes of YA fiction books I have. Even if I add those dozens of self-help titles that I lend to my friends they are still too small compare to fictions books I acquired for the past years.

There are other plans but all these plans and goals are just more of a reminder for me to just removed the restrictions and the usual lines of schedule and target goals. Time to go back reading and reviewing for my own enjoyment and just share the love for written words without the hassle of obligations.

Death in Fiction

photo credits: @King_Joffrey

*warning: there are some spoilers for Veronica Roth’s latest book, Allegiant!

I’m visiting twitter today when I saw from my timeline the tweet above, where someone re-tweeted a photo of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ books bookmarked with each death of character from the series. Though I haven’t started reading the books yet (I insist on start reading them once I got my own hardbound copies of at least upto the 6th book) I’ve been following the TV series adaptation, so I’m at least a bit aware of how the author can easily kill his characters. In fact, I am not yet over grieving with Ned, and Robb Stark death from that series. So thinking about death in fictions, reminds me some of my current reads where major characters were killed by their creators during the process of writing.

If you have read Veronica Roth’s final book to her YA dystopian series, Divergent, it is no spoiler to you how her protagonist, Tris end up in Allegiant. For someone who’s following that series, I am invested to Veronica Roth’s characters already, not only with her major characters, Tris and Four but also their alliance and friends. I root for them and hope only the best for everyone. But having read many dystopian books, I am also aware how bleak and dark their central world is. And with that kind of setting, death is surely unavoidable. Even before reading the first book, I already anticipated lots of casualties as the story push forward. I expected death along the way as I read. I am even ready to let go of the major characters if needed. So Tris’ death is NOT shocking to me.

But what shocked me is that I didn’t feel anything from Tris’ death. I didn’t mourn like what I did when I watch Ned Stark beheaded, or Robb Stark murdered. I didn’t shed any tear like when Augustus Waters of ‘The Fault In Our Stars‘ died in cancer which I already anticipated from the start, or when Mia hall of ‘If I Stay‘ spent her possible remaining days in coma. Even when I go back reading each word slowly about how Tris died, I still felt nothing!

I wasn’t even upset that Tris died. I get why she needs to be the one who make the sacrifices. I totally understand her motivation, but still I think Veronica Roth failed with the execution. Instead of making Tris’ death meaningful it feels more contrived in my opinion.

Sure it is an act of love as Tris traded her own life for her brother Caleb. It also qualified as an act of heroism or noble sacrifice, after all she’s doing it for the greater good. But considering how she end up there in the first place somehow makes the difference.

Losing someone in fiction cannot be compare to losing someone in real life but killing a main character should still feel like lost. Especially those characters we spent a lot of time knowing and understanding. We spent our times reading their stories in a series of books like we spent our times knowing a friend deeper. Losing them by death or by simply ending their stories should at least feel like goodbyes. Because at the end of the day, even a fictional character and fictional world needs to say goodbye. And goodbyes doesn’t always means the end. That we are done with the stories and characters. It just another chapter close from readers experience. And in every end there’s always a lesson. So no matter how a character is killed, or how the story ended, it is how it affected the readers that’s matter. What impact it leaves and what lessons the readers learned from it.

Character death can be one of the best reading moments, as it has the power to trigger something to its readers. If done well, it can be the most memorable and upsetting scene, which in return can be one of the most powerful card of a writer can play in her own hand. It’s like a secret ace he or she can pull to win the readers emotions & feelings. With all that said, death or ending should at least leave impact to the readers.

Media Conference & Book Signing with Ransom Riggs

Minutes before Ransom Riggs‘ Book Signing event at Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street in Taguig, we got the chance to interviewed him during the separate media conference at U-View room of Fully Booked. Louisse of The Soul Sisters blog invited me to join her in this event since her co-blogger Geraldine couldn’t make it. Thanks so much Louise. I feel blessed and grateful joining the few invited people inside the media conference. There were only four bloggers, few media people and of course the Fully Booked’s representatives.

Seeing Ransom Riggs thrice in a row doesn’t actually lessen my stomach jitters. He is a joy to the eyes, as he always smile and enthusiastic. A lot of questions were thrown to him and he all answered each of those questions enthusiastically. I’ve learned so much about him, his book and his works. As media people throw questions after questions, I can only listen and digest all the information Ransom is sharing to us.

When I asked him, if he ever considered using his own photos for his book, his humble reply is “No”. For him his photos aren’t as good as those photos he used in his book. He thinks his photos are not as old or as expressive. But obviously Ransom has an eye for good photos. After all he is the one in charge in collecting and choosing what photos to use in his books. I think he is just too humble to admit that his photos are also great. And according to him, he is is a big fan of photography in which he draw inspiration, same as with movies, stories, and light.

It surprised me that he actually start collecting photos before writing his book, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. In fact, it is not even part of his plan to write a novel, but instead he just want to present his collections of photos to his editor as an idea for a picture book. But his editor response with a challenge for him to weaved a story based from the photos he presented. They want him to create a story out of those pictures. And with that challenged in front of him, Ransom started looking for more photos across different locations to complete his now best selling novel.

After the questions and answers at the media conference, attendees also got the chance to take photos with Ransom and got their books signed. Fully Booked gave each attendees a paperback copy of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children to be signed by Ransom. But since I already have my book signed prior to the event, I just asked Ransom to write a dedication for my sister Rica instead. I’m really surprised that he recognized me from Tahereh’s bloggers’ forum as he said to me, “Hey! Nice meeting you twice in a row!”.

After the media conference, we all go upstairs at the atrium of Fully Booked for the book signing where lots of Ransom Riggs fans are patiently waiting. As Ransom scan the crowds that extends up to the third floor of Fully Booked, it is clear how surprise he is. He even take photos and video of the crowd and posted it on his twitter account. “Say hi to the camera!” he calls out.

Ransom in front of more than two hundred fans is delightfully funny than he is during the media conference. I think it is because media people are much formal than the fans. Before the actual book signing happens, lots of questions were thrown to Ransom which he all answer honestly and eagerly. No unanswered questions left, even those personal questions such as his marital status. *wink* He also discuss few details about his book and the film adaptation which will be directed by no other than Tim Burton. He also reads few passages from his book, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

* most of the photos above are grab from Louise and Fully Booked’s Facebook Page

During the book signing I saw someone sketching Ransom on the spot. I forgot her name, but she isn’t a blogger and looks like a very shy and private person. According to her, she is just actually there killing time. I’m amazed with her random sketches and when I saw her sketching Ransom Riggs, I can’t help but inform my companions about it. Louise also amazed with her talent asked her for some photo of her and her drawing, particularly the Ransom sketch. I think she couldn’t say no to us even if she want to because we are all very pushy. Louise even offered her a free copy of Ransom Riggs’ book, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, if she will go in front and show Ransom her sketch. Which she did eventually. Glad I still got my number for the book signing, which she used to line up to meet Ransom in front and have her new book signed as well as take some photos with Ransom.

Near the end of the book signing, Tahereh Mafi also drop by to check the event. My friends and I actually expecting her since Tahereh told Louisse a day before that she plan to drop by. And Ransom also confirm this to us in a whisper during the book signing, when our group approach him for another photo ops. He surely remember us from the previous event with Tahereh.

Meeting Ransom and talking to him in person is such an awesome experience. There so much to learn about him and from him. His humility alone strucks me. Add his passion and dedication to his work, you will surely love this guy. I hope he’ll be able to visit Manila again.

Thanks to Fully Booked for bringing Ransom Riggs here in Manila and for organizing the media conference and book signing event. Thanks so much to Louisse for extending her invitation to me. And a million thanks to Ransom for gracing us with his presence and giving us a wonderful bookish experience.

On Writing Poetry

I love poems. I love reading them and writing my own. Poetry become part of my life since I was a kid when my older brother is too talented to write his own and even add some melody to it. I admit, I look up to my brother so much when I was a kid (and up till now) that I almost copy every talent he has. But sad to admit I always fell behind. I can’t play any single musical instrument unlike him who can pick up and play almost anything with his talented hands. I pretty s*ck at music but it doesn’t mean I can’t write some lyrics right? So yeah poetry become my thing while my brother and his band were recording his songs in studio. I know I sounds like a jealous sibling right now but honestly I am just really proud of him. I am always proud of him even it means I am not the best. So yeah, back to poetry, I used to collect poetry books & even clippings when I was a kid. I started writing verses and rhymes when I was in high school which I usually give to my friend as part of gifts or letters. There are notebooks full of my writings & compositions that I gifted to my best friend. I’m not sure if she still has it, though. I wish she still keep them even how many times she moved and changed places. It would be lovely to read those stuffs again one day and reminisce the story behind those written words.

The first blog I created back in 2002 where Friendster is still a trend is a poetry blog. Too bad I wasn’t able to salvage all my works in there. Even this site, Blackplume was originally intended for my poetry writings. I used to call this site my literary blog before it became a book blog. Most of my poetry compositions were written not in English though, that’s why I rarely post them in here. I think I am most comfortable writing in my native language, Tagalog. There are few composition that make it to this blog but mostly just random stuff I made. You can check them under “Poetry” category if you like.

I’m not sure how other take my poetry. Most of my friends said they never really understand my works. As if I talk alien when I write poems. Which sometimes I translate as “they don’t appreciate”. I don’t really think ahead of what other might thought about my composition. In fact I am completely satisfied and much happy if no one really reads my works. At least by that I know no one will judge me or my writing. I always think that my poems are just for me. A way to express my thoughts and feelings when no one else is available to listen. It’s like my kind of diary but you need to slice the layers between the words to really know the meaning behind them. Even the words are too easy to understand they don’t always mean the same thing. Like lately most of my compositions talked about love, which is so easy to interpret as either I’m in a relationship, just got out of one, or in between. But honestly I am not in any relationship. Not everything I’ve written is all about me, and even if it is about me, it doesn’t explicitly tell my story or at least not all of it.

But I have to admit, it is easier for me to write in verses and rhymes when I am down. Words flow easily when I am in pain, confused, or just simply lost. One of my outlet when my emotions were too high is my writing. That’s why when you read my previous works it is easy to see the pain and confusion behind the words. But more than those negative emotions, those poems gives me relief when I am writing them. They become my anchor when the storm is too strong for me to navigate my sails. They are my eye-opening when my eyes are too blurry with tears to see the truth. They are my reminders that somehow I get pass all the troubles and pain and that I can always make it to the next phase. They become my adviser, my friend, and my solace.

Poems are more than just empty words or rhyming lines. Sometimes they carry more than what a reader can understand. Most of the time it express a deeper truth, holds raw emotions and capture the soul of the writer. It has its own pulse that beats reality, hopes and dreams.

Catching Up with Reading and Blogging

It’s been almost a month since my last update here. Forgive me but I am just too busy with the other part of my life lately, doing a lot of travelling and exploring. Still I don’t leave any single chance to read, though. I always bring my Kindle with me wherever I go. May it be beaches, mountains or just anywhere I went. Problem is since I’m too ecstatic with my travel adventures I could not focus on writing any book review for the life of me. Sometimes things are just too much to handle at once.

Now, I’m trying to catch up updating, reading, and blogging. I won’t bother you all discussing my travel adventures because even if I try I’m sure I won’t be able to write those coherently. There are things that are just too much to share. So let me update you instead with my reading lists, after all this is a book blog right?

Since my last book review post, Rapture by Lauren Kate. I managed to finished reading eight fictions titles, one is The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg and the complete seven books of Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling. Currently I’m reading three titles from different genre. One is The 360 Degree Leader Workbook: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization by John Maxwell which is way overdue already. The other one is The Elephant Vanishes: Stories by Haruki Murakami and the last one and my priority read for today The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I’m hoping to finished reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower before I see the movie adaptation this weekend. I actually started it last night but I ended reading only the first chapter before I fall asleep. Hopefully I can get back reading it tonight after the party I needed to attend to.

My next reads after I finished the three books above will include another J.K. Rowling book, which is her latest novel, The Vacancy as well as Mitch Albom latest novel, The Time Keeper. These two books are part of my most awaited title list before their released on the market. Other than these there are few books that are part of my required reading such as Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins for the read along this coming October 1st, The Man Painter by Melissa Turner Lee for review, and some PM books for works. 

Other than reading and blogging I’m also behind with the latest news and books releases. I haven’t hit any book stores for quite awhile and I haven’t much online too, so please so update me via comments below about what the things I’ve missed when I’m gone.