Take One at Mulholland High

PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge.

~ Ann Benjamin ~ Leave a comment

  • A book published in 2022 – I’m not saying that Take Three at Mulholland High will be published next year, but I’m also not NOT saying that. Check out the first of the two books in the series here.
  • A book set on a plane, train, or cruise ship – A very pivotal scene of Twenty Year Reunion takes place on a private plane… Just saying.
  • A book about or set in a non-patriarchal society – While the events of The Queen of England trilogy do feature some men, with a literal queen, I’d like to think my AU steps out of a patriarchal society quite a bit.
  • A book about the afterlife – While not the main character, in Life After Joe, there is a lot of discussion about life after death (and what comes next for those left behind).
  • A book that takes place during your favorite season – if it’s Fall, it’s marching band. Try Confessions of a Teenage Band Geek.
  • A book about a band or musical group – double dipping here with Twenty Year Reunion and Quinn Martel.
  • A book set during a holiday – Room 702 literally has them all. And also, you can cross off the book that features two languages in the advanced category as well!
  • A different book by an author you read in 2021 – you can find all my books here, or here.
  • A book with two POVs – check out Take One (and Take Two) at Mulholland High, both feature Chloe and Ali as dual protagonists.

Hope that gets you started — happy reading!

A reminder that all of my books are free to read via Kindle Unlimited.

Take Two at Mulholland High: Book club questions.

~ Ann Benjamin ~ Leave a comment

Slight spoiler alerts here.  You might want to read the book first before reading ahead.

  • What was your favorite quote or scene?
  • How did the characters change throughout the story? How did your opinion of them change?
  • Which character did you connect the most with?
  • Would you ever want to appear on a reality show?  What would be the theme of the show?
  • Does this novel pass the Bechtel test?
  • There are themes of forgiveness in the book. How would you react if you were in a situation like Ali? Would you accept Ben’s apology? Do you think Blade is worth forgiving?
  • How did you feel about the ending? What did you like, what did you not like, and what do you wish had been different?
  • Do you have any predictions for the next book in the series?
  • Of course, I’d always love to hear any additional questions you might suggest!

Take Two at Mulholland High: Numbers.

~ Ann Benjamin ~ Leave a comment

Hello! I come to you from the depths of editing Take Two at Mulholland High.

A few numbers to share with you.

  • 69,523, original word count. I knew this was going to have to change, because I (intentionally) skipped writing two chapters.
  • 72,709, first draft, after adding and subtracting a lot of words. I have a Google doc with 10 pages of cut scenes, so there was a lot of movement, including cutting a few plot lines that went nowhere.
  • 71,104, what I would consider my ‘1.5’ draft. After meticulously going through and removing a ton of unnecessary words, this was the lowest point.
  • 74,818, with added chapters and final second draft.  I’m not sure where the final draft will end up, but I don’t expect a change too much on +/- 1,000 words, which is nearly identical to the first book in the series.

I’m currently waiting to send this draft to my editor, and once back, I will have a few people read the next iteration (it’s not quite there yet). I will say this draft took longer than I thought it would, but that’s okay. I’m happy with the efforts so far (and yes, I know what the third book looks like, which may or may not get written this year).

What’s next? As Mulholland 2 was one of two books (!) I wrote last year (!!), I’m moving on to edit the sequel to Confessions of a Teenage Band Geek.

And yes, the cover for Mulholland 2 is already lined up.