Guest Post & Giveaway: LUISA PLAJA

I'm an avid reader, especially of contemporary and humorous teen fiction, but until recently it didn't occur to me to collect quotes from my favourite books, in the wonderful way that many people do on Goodreads and other reading sites.

I only began to do this after listening to audiobooks a lot. Suddenly, I found myself stopping the recording to scribble bits down. Maybe I did this because of the difference between print and audio stories. I can re-read an amazing sentence again and again for as long as I want, but when I listen, the words float past and are gone quickly - too quickly – so I feel the need to capture them. Or maybe I'm just discovering the joy of quotes.

Unfortunately, at the moment, my note-taking method is far from foolproof. Some of my notes make sense, and others... don't. For example, here are some of my most recent scribblings:

"Maybe girls need an island to find themselves. Maybe they need a place where no one's watching them, so they can be who they really are." - Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

"Why is it always easier..." 4:32 - listen again! - Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

As you can see, I don't always manage to transcribe quotes, probably because I'm too distracted by my need to get back to the story. And my recent notes from print books aren't that much better:

"I didn't care who kissed you first as long as I kissed you last." If We Kiss by Rachel Vail (Check!**)

"He smiled. God, I hate his smile, I love it so much." You, Maybe by Rachel Vail (Check!**)

 (**I have since checked the quotes above, and they're accurate!)

When I was a student, I spent some time at a university in Central Italy, in a town called Perugia which is famous for its chocolate "Baci" (kisses). Inside the wrapping of each one is a love-related quote translated into various languages. When I first wrote the story which is now called Cool Cats and Melted Kisses (and which can be found in the Truth & Dare anthology edited by Liz Miles), I made up a small collection of quotes for chocolates and I settled on a pivotal one for the story. It sounds so "quote-like" that I'm now not entirely convinced it didn’t already exist, but I've searched high and low and as yet I haven’t found it anywhere else. Maybe I should eat vast quantities of chocolate to make sure...

Do you have a favourite quote from a book (or a chocolate)? I'd love to know.

In the meantime, if you'd like to win a copy of Truth & Dare, please leave a comment below and The Book Slooth will draw a winner. (Giveaway open internationally.)

Thank you very much for having me here, Isme!

Luisa Plaja
http://www.luisaplaja.co.uk

  

Truth & Dare edited by Liz Miles contributors:  Jennifer Boylan, Sarah Rees Brennan, Cecil Castellucci, Emma Donoghue, Courtney Gillette, A.M. Homes, Jennifer Hubbard, Heidi R. Kling, Jennifer Knight, Michael Lowenthal, Liz Miles, Saundra Mitchell, Luisa Plaja, Matthue Roth, Sherry Shahan, Gary Soto, James St James, Shelley Stoehr, Sara Wilkinson, Ellen Wittlinger, and Jill Wolfson

Baci photo: Some rights reserved by Jerine http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerine/

COMPETITION INFORMATION:

OPEN INTERNATIONALLY

To enter, simply comment on this post, a winner will be drawn at random!

COMPETITION CLOSES: Thursday, Nov 10, 2011.

If you would like to spread the word, feel free to use the button (left) or the poster (above).

Good Luck everybody, and a huge thank you to Luisa!

If you would like to learn more about Luisa Plaja, Truth & Dare or Chicklish, you might find these links useful:

Truth and Dare @ Luisa Plaja.co.uk

Luisa Plaja.co.uk

Chicklish