Incandescent

Covers: How Much Will They Matter In A Digital Age?

2012-02-10T11:35:00.001-05:00

Photo found here.

One of the items in the endless list of things to keep a soon-to-be-published author up at night is the book cover. Will it convey the right tone? Will it appeal to the right audience? What if it's in a color I hate? Will they let me change it at all if it's horrible? Even for self-published authors (probably especially for self-published authors) these questions can be consuming. But how much does the cover even matter in a digital age?

Jody Hedlund, author and blogger, recently posted about her newest cover and the process that went into creating it. Her publisher posted several options a few weeks ago and asked readers to vote on their favorite. In the post, Jody not only unveils the winner, but explains why it won. One of the explanations that struck me the most was "2. The larger picture would be stronger compared to the others when viewed online, where thumbnail images are so pervasive."

Honestly, it pleased me to see that publishers are taking digital marketing and display seriously. Brick and mortar bookstores are closing down all over the place (I live in a pretty major metropolitan area and there is ONE major bookstore left within half an hour of my house) and the convenience of digital readers are converting many people--myself included. The turning point for me was my move last year where, because of space, I was forced to give away/sell/donate about half of my precious book collection. If I had digital editions of those books, I would never have had to worry about that. There's a lot more to this discussion, but I'll save it for later before I get myself completely off track.

When browsing through sites like Amazon, the only things you see are the cover, the title, the author, and the price. If you don't recognize the author's name, that's already one of four possible draws down the drain. If the title doesn't grab you, there goes another. All you have left are the cover and the price point. If the price is average--not low enough to make the book a WTH-impulse buy but not high enough to immediately knock it out of the running--the cover is going to be the only thing that will draw in your audience.

If you're publishing with a major house, you probably don't have a lot of control over the cover--or anything post-final draft, really. However, if you're self-publishing it is the greatest disservice in the world to not spend the money on a professional, eye-catching cover. There are so many artists out there with lost of talent who are available for free-lance design work. It probably won't even be as much money as you think it might. It doesn't hurt to look and you'll only be shooting yourself in the foot if you don't. The other thing to consider is editing (I've passed on buying a lot of books because more than half the reviews were something along the lines of "the story was great, but there were too many errors"), but that's a whole post in and of itself.

Bottom line: will covers be important in the digital age? YES. Maybe even more so than they are now.

Reviews: The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

2012-02-08T12:48:00.003-05:00

Out one night in support of her two best friends, Bianca is doing what she always does when they drag her to The Nest: sit at the bar sipping Cherry Coke and talking to the bartender Joe. She's bored and restless, but resigned. At least until Wesley Rush decides to occupy the bar stool next to hers. He's arrogant, rude, charming, promiscuous, and unbelievably attractive, so Bianca doesn't bother playing his game. Which is a good thing because he pretty quickly admits he's only talking to her because she's the DUFF--the designated ugly fat friend--and spending time with the DUFF is a surefire way to hookup with the hotter friends. And he has his eye on hers. Disgusted, Bianca douses Wesley in the remainder of her Coke, grabs her friends, and storms out, convinced she won't be hearing from Wesley again anytime soon. His insult, though, plays incessantly in her mind. Add that to finding out her crush has a girlfriend at another school, her mom--who has been on a book tour for two months--still isn't coming home, and crashing in Wesley in the hall during school and Bianca is teetering on the edge of a truly horrendous day. Wesley sitting next to her at The Nest that night is just icing on the cake. Already on edge, she loses control when he notices her foul mood and actually asks her what's wrong. Without thinking, she grabs him and pulls him into a kiss that nearly devours them both. The rush is like a drug that makes her forget all of her stupid problems. At least, until she feels Wesley's hand traveling up her chest and into forbidden territory. Then she pushes him away, slaps him across the face, and once again storms off.

Life seems to be plotting against her, though. Problems that seemed manageable grow ever worse and then expand into unforeseen territory including the return of her one ex-boyfriend and the guy she gave her virginity too years ago and the arrival of divorce papers from her mother. Bianca doesn't know how to handle it, but she remembers how easy it was to forget everything when Wesley's mouth was on hers, so she loses herself in him again, this time in an enemies-with-benefits relationship that consumes them both. As things get worse at home, she finds herself spending more and more time with Wesley (and not just in bed) and less time with her friends, especially Casey who asks too many questions. But Wesley is safe because he doesn't really care. Wesley is safe because she's just another notch on his headboard. Wesley is safe because she's the DUFF--as he constantly reminds her--and there's no way the infamous Wesley Rush would ever fall for the DUFF. But there is the danger that the DUFF may fall for Wesley Rush. Eventually, Bianca has to face facts and try to fix the mess her life has become. Will she be able to figure out what to do about Wesley, how to fix her strained relationship with her best friends, and save her father from going off the deep end before everything is shattered beyond repair?

Before I go into my take on this story, a warning. This book is definitely rated PG-13. Possibly R depending on your stance on things. There's a lot of sex (not graphically described, but it's there), swearing, and a few other things some parents would probably find objectionable. On the other hand, it's also a pretty honest look at teen life today. Honest, accurate, and eye-opening. The point of the story isn't the sex, the crush, the parents, or even the friends. It's about Bianca's perception of herself, especially after hearing herself described as the DUFF by one of the hottest guys in her school. She can instantly see that he's right and each time he calls her Duffy (which is often as their relationship continues), it's like a knife wound in her already shaky self-confidence. It has become habit for Bianca to bottle everything up to the point where her friends know to translate the phrase "I'm fine" as "Shut up because I'm not going to tell you what's wrong." Everything in her life feels like it's out of her control but she doesn't want to add her stress to everyone else's. That is something I can completely understand as it's a habit I have as well. One that's hard to break. While some people are going to dislike the casual references to sex and the way Bianca flings herself into a relationship with a guy she knows is a "man-whore," I think the whole story is crafted in a way that shows you how little you see of the people around you and how you can't judge them just because you know one thing about them. It teaches a lesson that can be applied universally, to boys, girls, teens, or adults. I was impressed by Kody's characters and the way they developed through the story and it really felt like a peek into the life of some group of highschool kids somewhere in the country. Anywhere, really. So, despite the maturity warning I attach to the book, it's still one I highly recommend. I really enjoyed reading it.

Sera's Rating: 4/5

Writing: Getting Back On The Ball

2012-02-07T10:49:00.002-05:00

Photo found here.

There are a lot of things in life that can be compared to riding a bicycle. Not actually riding it, but getting back onto one after weeks or months or years. You may be shaky at first, but you never really forget how to do it. Writing is like riding a bicycle.

The words are always locked inside your head, the stories are always a part of your imagination, and whether you're aware of it or not, you have a city filled with characters just waiting for their chance to tell their story. No matter how long you stay away from the computer or your notebooks or the scraps of paper you use to record your stories, they'll always come back to you if you sit down and listen.

It just might take a while.

Nathan Bransford, agent turned middle-grade author, posted about coming back from a break on his blog yesterday. He gives writers six guidelines for getting through the initial return to writing:

1) Know that your first day back will not be productive
2) Don't head straight for the novel
3) Badger yourself into opening up your novel and getting started again even if it feels like you are peeling off your own skin.
4) Start somewhere easy
5) Don't get down on yourself
6) Follow up with a good day of writing

Whether or not these apply to every person or every situation, they're still good, solid pieces of advice. Nathan goes into more detail than this on each point in his post, but you still get the main idea from his headlines. Having "returned" a few times in the past few years, I can tell you that this is pretty accurate to what you'll face when you try to get back on the ball. Most of the time. There are exceptions, of course. Usually those exceptions involve huge bursts of inspiration, but don't hold out for one of those. If you're determined, just start writing. The rest will come.

Writing: Hobbies, Interests, and Obsessions

2012-02-03T12:02:00.001-05:00

Photo found here.

I do not have what you may term an addictive personality. I've never idolized rock stars or actors, never followed sports teams, never consumed information on a single topic until i could call myself an expert. I've never been obsessive about anything with one huge exception: Books.

A lot of parents have to bribe and cajole their kids into picking up a book. My mom got mad at me sometimes for reading too much especially, for instance, while we were driving through the lush landscapes of Hawaii.

While my other interests waxed and waned, reading was always a constant. I can't even begin to count how many books I've read over the course of my live. A lot of them I remember, some of them I'm sure I've forgotten, but each of them played a part in shaping the way I think, the way I see the world, and how I approach my second-found love: writing. Love of books lead me toward my Creative Writing major and it helped me find career paths that won't just be jobs. This, I think, is one of the biggest gift anyone can find: a way to make money doing something you would do for free.

This kind of persistent obsession is kind of important if you want to make a career out of being a writer. The path to publication is a struggle and it doesn't necessarily get easier over time. You will constantly be bombarded by critics and critiques, both constructive and destructive, and have to find a way to cope with this. You'll have to push through exhaustion and writer's block and characters who just won't do what their told to come out the other side with a book that someone somewhere is guaranteed to pick up and think is the worst thing ever written in the history of publishing. Hopefully this will be balanced by the people who pick it up and believe the opposite, but humans have a tendency to linger over the negative more than the positive.

Take a moment and look at your life. What are the things that have always spoken to you? What passions have always filled your heart, even if they sometimes faded to the background a little? Look at those and find a way to use that, in your writing or in your life. There's enough misery in the world already. We each have to find our own way to keep ourselves happy.

Traveling: A Photoblog

2012-02-01T22:18:00.000-05:00

A day later than promised, I know, but I'm back in Florida! Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you talk to the people who actually live in the area), There was only heavy snow one day of my trip. However the weather was cool and crisp and that was good enough for me! Here are some of the scenic highlights from my trip. Click below the first picture for more.

Updates: The Next Week

2012-01-21T16:04:00.000-05:00

Photo found here.

This coming week I am taking my first true solo vacation. It's also part business trip and will take me from Essex, Connecticut, through Brooklyn, NY, and then on to Oswego which is nestled along the coast of Lake Ontario in Upstate NY. While I will be stopping with people in each location, no one is traveling with me. This may not seem like a huge deal, but I've never done it before, so it's kind of exciting. :)

What this means is that I probably won't be posting until Tuesday, January 31st. I might pop in and out with some pictures from the trip if I can get it to post correctly from my phone, but otherwise I'm taking a hiatus.

If you're still new to the blog, you can always check through the back posts, otherwise I shall see you all upon my return!

<3 Sera

Books: What Should Kids Read?

2012-01-20T20:48:00.002-05:00

Photo found here.

I was recently pointed toward an article about teens and reading by another blog. I wish I could remember which blog, but I saved the link to the article and not the blog post. Very silly of me. I shall try not to do that in the future.

Anyway, this article was written by an English teacher who teaches primarily in lower-income urban schools and he proposed (and I'm poorly paraphrasing here) that kids should not be reading contemporary fiction about the lives they're living, they should be reading things like Lysistrata and Oedipus. I read his arguments and could understand where he was coming from, but at the end I was left with one huge question.

Why in the world do the classic and contemporary fiction have to be mutually exclusive subjects?

Growing up, I never really understood Shakespeare. I read it, I passed the tests on what I read, but if I picked up a play on my own I probably would have been completely lost a couple pages in. Not until I got to college and found a teacher who knew how to teach Shakespeare was I really interested and intrigued, not only by his work but by the man behind the words. How did he (the teacher, not Shakespeare) do this? By relating the classic to the contemporary. I think that teachers who are able to do this have a much better chance of pulling their students in. This may not always involve contemporary literature, but why does it have to exclude it? I would have found it amazing if a teacher had assigned, for example, Wuthering Heights and then asked us to read a contemporary novel that is a spin off that story and find the parallels. How cool is the teacher who teaches Romeo & Juliet and then plays the Baz Lurhmann version for the students? I know so many kids--especially in my younger sister's generation--who just don't read. At all. Ever. I find this so sad. And these kids aren't from low-income environments. Most of them are thoroughly middle class, but it takes the right book to spark a lifelong interest and none of them have found it. For my middle sister it was Harry Potter. Before those, we couldn't pay her to read; now we have to pay her to pry her away. Not everyone is going to be sparked by the classics and I believe children should be encouraged to find their interests before being taught to broaden their horizons.

Also, on a personal note, I disliked the way the article's author concentrated his attack on contemporary literature almost solely on Walter Dean Myers, a YA author whose books center mainly on African-American children in the projects. This attack seemed almost like a personal vendetta by the end of the argument and, at least to my way of thinking, actually took away some of his credibility. Sometimes it is exactly what someone needs to look at a book written by a stranger and see a reflection of one's own life. To know that someone somewhere really knows what you're going through because they were there to. To have the hope that they survived and so can you. Taking that away entirely would be as cruel as losing the classics the article's author is so worried about.

Reviews: Cross My Heart by Katie Klein

2012-01-19T12:39:00.001-05:00

Jaden McEntyre lives a life that is about as perfectly organized as you can make it. She has everything planned out from her next fundraiser for the children of Bangladesh to the next ten years of her life as she goes from Harvard to med-school and beyond. Her boyfriend Blake is sweet and popular and sends her good morning text messages every day and even if her contractor father hasn't gotten around to fixing her bathroom sink for the past couple years, she still knows her family loves her. Everything is fine until she's late for class one day and is assigned a partner for a group project: Parker Whalen.

Parker moved to town a few months ago and the rumors about his past are as outrageous as the motorcycle he rides to school every day. Jaden isn't sure if she believes even half of them, but she isn't about to let something as ridiculous as rumors keep her from getting an A on this project. She's extremely frustrated when Parker avoids speaking to her at first, but she eventually wears him down. Then it's only everyone else she has to worry about. Her boyfriend is jealous of, her parents are worried about, and her best friend is mystified by the time Jaden is suddenly spending with Parker. But Jaden is finding that the more time she spends with him, the less he seems like the devil-may-care rebel everyone else has him pinned as. When Jaden's plans for her future suddenly fall apart, Parker is there to help her reassemble the pieces, but what will happen when she discovers the secret he's been hiding for the past six months? Will she ever be able to move past it and trust him again or has their love been shattered just like her plans?

This book seems like the normal girl-falls-for-a-boy-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks story, but don't let that fool you. It's not. Klein's characters are interesting and relatable and she knows how to keep your interest right from the start. Jaden has never had anyone question her plans or her need for control, so when Parker starts pushing buttons she didn't know she had everything changes. The dynamic of Jaden's family is an interesting subplot--she's the youngest of three kids with two older brothers and a soon-to-be sister in law still living at home--and it's amazing how something as simple as a broken bathroom sink takes on grand proportions as it pops up again and again through the story. On top of all this, when you get to the twist ending you'll immediately want to go back and reread the whole book looking for the clues Klein leaves along the way like bread crumbs. The building relationship between Parker and Jaden is well developed with just the right amount of tension as both of them fight the pull for their own reasons. I found myself just as curious about and captivated by Parker as Jaden was and I think it would be fascinating to see pieces of the story from his perspective.

Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a contemporary YA romance with a twist. And also, I plan on rereading it. Just FYI. :)

Sera's Rating: 5/5

Reviews: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

2012-01-18T11:02:00.002-05:00

This book is exactly what it says it is: the story of why Min--short for Minerva--and Ed broke up. Told in a letter written from Min to Ed as she returns a box of keepsakes from their relationship, you hear about their first meeting when Ed shows up uninvited to Min's best friend's sixteenth birthday party and everything that follows. Min and Ed struggle to fit each other into their lives, but Min doesn't belong in Ed's athletic, basketball groupie, beer drinking clique and Ed doesn't really mesh with Min's classic movie loving "artsy" friends. But the more people try to tell them this relationship will never work, the more determined they become to see it through. You know--and since she's writing this after the fact, so does Min--that the relationship is doomed before Ed shows up in the first chapter, but the little vignettes and the moments captures by the trinkets and tokens Min has collected draw you along as you find out why.

Not necessarily in plot, but in style this book is a daring departure from the norm in young adult fiction. Why We Broke Up mixes first and second person with the narrative written to "you" (Ed) and since Min's letter is written in a single sitting on a single day, it ends up being almost stream of consciousness as she pours out every moment and every thought and every secret. I loved the originality and the authenticity of Min's voice, but found myself lost sometimes in descriptions that would carry on for so long I forgot what she was describing. Working to concentrate on following her train of thought pulled me out of an otherwise captivating book. I did, however, love the addition of the artwork by Maria Kalman, renderings of the items Min is returning to Ed. Seeing these items described by Min added something unique to this story.

Overall, I believe Handler and Kalman have created something beautiful here. There's a poetry to Min's meandering narrative and this is one of those books that proves the journey is more important than the destination. Knowing where we're headed doesn't take anything away from this novel.

Sera's Rating: 4/5

Reviews: Heart On A Chain By Cindy C. Bennett

2012-01-17T09:33:00.001-05:00

Kate lived a normal live once, but it was so long ago she barely remembers what that was like. After her father lost his job and her mother miscarried, Kate's life was never the same again. Her father started staying out and drinking. When he did come home, it was only to vent his anger on Kate's mother. It didn't take long for Kate's mother to turn her frustrations on the only person left: Kate. Without any friends or anyone she trusts to turn to, Kate is left to suffer in silence as her mother slowly kills her spirit.

Henry Jamison knew Kate when they were little and he thought she was beautiful, kind, vibrant, and smart. But then his family moves just as he and Kate begin to realize how much they care about each other. Six years later Henry moves back and he can't understand what happened to the little girl he once knew. He'd never forgotten her, but now she runs if he even tries to say hello. The other students either ignore or antagonize her and it doesn't seem like he'll ever be able to break through the walls she's erected around herself. Will Kate be able to trust his intentions or will she fail to recognize the first person to see through her protective barriers and care about the person underneath? What happens when an unthinkable tragedy threatens the delicate balance they've found?

This book is beautiful, heartbreaking, and hopeful. Bennett has created characters who live and breathe on the pages--even some of the minor characters--and she sucks you into a world no one wants to live in yet people somehow survive. The tormenting Kate suffers at school may seem overblown, but having seen it in action during my childhood I can say it's not overdramatized by much. The cruelties of children are equalled by their kindnesses. It's a strange phenomenon. This is also true of the families presented in the book. Henry's family is almost too good to be true: loving, warm, generous, accepting and a perfect foil to the cold, angry home Kate has grown up in. Bennett shows readers both extremes of the spectrum and somehow manages to give the book balance, not letting it get too dark or overly fluffy and light.

Henry doesn't ride in to her rescue as much as give her a place to turn when things get bad. In fact, for most of the book he has no idea what's going on. He has suspicions that something isn't right, but coming from his loving household, it's hard for him to conceive of the abuse Kate is suffering. He is steadfast, protective, and sweet and the growing love between the two teens is a major part of what drew me into the story.

One of Kate's strengths is her ability to forgive and let go even when faced with those I don't know if she should forgive. Some people may interpret this as weak--I've seen a couple of reviews who really railed on her for this--but I think it takes a much stronger character to let go of grudges than hold onto them. By doing this Kate is not only helping herself move past this horrible phase in her life, she's (hopefully) helping the others grow and learn from her example. Just by being who she is, Kate changes the lives of the people around her. She never even realizes she's doing it. I think a lot of people underestimate the quieter kinds of power and strength.

A warning to the squeamish. There are a couple of rather brutal physical abuse sequences, so just be aware of that before picking up the book.

Sera's Rating: 5/5

Poems: You Probably Won't Ever Find This In An Anthology, But...

2012-01-16T12:25:00.000-05:00

Photo found here.

Oh. My. Goodness. I was going through some of my grandfather's things this weekend and found a letter written on the back of a typed poem. The letter was dated in 1945 while my grandfather was still serving in the Army, but when I started reading the poem I bust out laughing. For some reason my grandpa held onto this for more than fifty years! WTH?! :D

Just, um, as a warning, the poem isn't explicit, but it's implicitly explicit... FYI for my few younger readers and those who don't care for such things.

Hope you're as amused by this as I was!

Book of the Month - Author Unknown

Suzzanne was a lady

with plenty of class

who knocked them all dead

when she wiggled her

Eyes at the fellows

as girls sometimes do

to make it quite plain

that she wanted to

Take in a movie

or go for a sail

and hurry home

for a piece of

Cake or ice cream

And a slice of roast duck

and after each meal

she was ready to

Go for a ride

or a stroll on the dock

with any young man

with a sizable

Roll of big bills

and a pretty big front

and if he talked fast

she would show him her

Little pet dog

who was subject to fits

and maybe she'd let him

take hold of her

Little white hands

with a movement so quick

why she'd reach right out

and tickle his

Chin while she showed him

a trick learned in France

and asked the poor fellow

to take off his

Coat while she sang

off the Mandalay shore

for whatever she was

Suzanne was a bore.

Movies: A Book's Worst Nightmare

2012-01-15T12:12:00.000-05:00

Someone posted this comic on Facebook and I laughed. It's so true! This is why I try to see movies before I read the book. This seems counter-intuitive to a lot of people, but let me explain.

I get really attached to books. The story, the characters, the little moments that only seem to work on paper. A movie changes all that and, sure, it may be great in it's own way, but if I walk in expecting what I read in the book, I'm disappointed 99% of the time. The only exceptions I can think of off the top of my head? The newest version of The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe and A Walk to Remember. However, if I see the movie first (for example, the newer version of The Count of Monte Cristo) I can appreciate the cinematic qualities of the movie and then fall in love all over again with the book.

Thinking about it makes me wonder if I'll be able to let go of the rights to my books when I'm published some day. Will I be able to trust some screenwriter and director to mold the story I've created into something worth seeing? Right now, I'm not sure, but I guess I'll have to jump that bridge when I come to it.

Writing: Doing What Scares You

2012-01-13T11:35:00.002-05:00

Photo found here.

I don't know who said it originally, but whoever it was is right: "You should do the thing that scares you." Or something close to that, anyway.

Now this doesn't mean that if you're afraid of poisonous spiders you should go buy one for a pet (some fears are survival-based, after all), but it does mean that you shouldn't let thinking you can't or shouldn't do something keep you from ever trying it.

As writers this could mean many things. Maybe tackling a particular genre, or subject, or style, or narrative voice. Maybe someone told you men can't write believable female voices. Maybe you think no one will read a book written in the second person. Maybe you think you suck at memoirs. Maybe you're right about all these things, but are you right because you tried and failed or because you're too scared to make the attempt?

Poetry is not my thing. Never has been. I like reading some--The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, for example, is great--but writing it has always seemed too hard. I have this in my head despite the fact that my AP high school English teacher--a woman who was notoriously stingy with compliments--told me that the poem I turned in as a response to Eve's Apology in Defense of Women was one of the best things she'd ever seen at a high school level. If interested, you can read an excerpt of the poem here (the original, not mine) and I found this awesome comic strip here.

That being said, I started writing a book about two musicians and knew going into it that I would need to come up with song lyrics. I think that somewhere in the back of my head I had the vague idea of asking someone else to do it for me, but how realistic is that? And do I really want to rely on someone else's vision for something as important as this? Nope. I don't. I shut off my inner editor and started writing--I mean, it's a first draft, right? Things can always be changed down the road.

I surprised myself. This writing form that I'd kept away from so long is suddenly consuming me. I'm writing more songs than I can possibly squeeze into the book (and I'm squeezing them in anyway, hoping most of them will make it through the editing process) and I'm actually liking them! I'm going to take a chance and post the song I wrote this morning. Keep in mind it's a first draft, but feel free to tell me what you think!

Staring out my window

Dreaming of the sky

Locked here in this tower

Tho no one else knows why

You appear then out of nowhere

And try to help me fly

And stare uncomprehending

When I shake my head and sigh

Your white horse don’t belong here

But then, of course, if you’re sincere

Won’t force this rescue till you here

Why my tower’s worth fighting for, dear

Cause what you didn’t see

When you came barging through the door

Is that the lock you broke through

The one now lying on the floor

Was done up on the inside

And then, of course, what’s more

Your horse stomped through my roses

And I’m left with the chore

Of picking up the pieces

Of my once strong oak wood door

Your white horse don’t belong here

But then, of course, if you’re sincere

Won’t force this rescue till you here

Why my tower’s worth fighting for, dear

Cause they may call me Cinderella

But I’d much rather be

The girl who stands up by your side

Cause fallin' behind ain’t me

So take your horse and ride off

Come back when you can see

The truth behind my tower

How the walls aren’t what they seem

You think they’re meant to keep me in

But in actuality

That strong red brick I built by hand

Wasn’t meant for me

Wanted to keep the world out

But now that I’m set free

How ‘bout you and your horse

Come fix these walls for me?

Writing: Methods

2012-01-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

One thing I've learned about my writing style over the years is that methods don't work for me. How I approach one novel doesn't work for another one. The lifespan of one book doesn't look anything like the lifespan of another. For example, during my marathon writing sessions on Sing, Sweet in November I watched a lot of movies. I don't know why, but I did. Working on my previous project, I usually wanted silence. Now? Bring on the music.

Photo found here.

Maybe it's because music is an integral part of the book, but I write better for these characters listening to my iPod. Listening to songs I love is helping me write songs for my bands and helping me imagine their life and their story. It's working so well I've written about 20,000 words just in the past few days. But will this continue? Who knows. The scariest thing about my mind is not even I understand how it works.

What is the point to this post? There are a lot of people and books and sites that will tell you they have a "foolproof" way you can write a book in three days or a month or three months or whatever. The truth? There's no such thing. What works for me may not work for you. The best thing to do is take all these suggestions in, try them out, and throw out the ones that feel more or less worthless. If you can, try to develop a system that works for you because you're more likely to have consistent results, but don't lock yourself into a "method" thinking that it's the only way to get the job done. The most important things are the words in your mind and how best to translate them onto paper. Or computer screen... Whatever. You get the idea. :)

Responsibility: Should We All Ruffle Some Feathers?

2012-01-11T11:21:00.001-05:00

From last year's Golden Globes. Photo found here.

We can't figure out why, but my mom gets a lot of magazines for free. It's usually Men's Health, US Weekly, and things like that, but my favorite is Entertainment Weekly. In the most recent issue, they present an article written by comedian/actor/writer/director Ricky Gervais about his controversial performance as the host of last year's Golden Globes Awards. Essentially, he offended almost everyone in Hollywood at some point or another with biting commentary and off-color jokes. But isn't that what comedians are supposed to do?

Entertainment Weekly gave Gervais the chance to explain his reasoning and his views on the purpose of comedy as we head into the 2012 Golden Globes. Surprisingly (maybe), Gervais is hosting it again this year.

Well written and insightful, the article talks about how sometimes what he says in no way relates to how people interpret his intentions. A particular joke about Scientology made last year, for example, was not an attack on any member of Hollywood royalty, it was an attack on an organized religion that tries to control and conform human behavior. All in all, it made me actually want to watch the award show this year--something I never do.

I tried to find the full article online, but didn't have any luck. If you can, stop by a drug store or doctor's office and look for this piece. It's well worth reading, and not just for writers who (I believe) have the same responsibility Gervais attributes to comedians. This article shines a light on a deficit in human understanding, one that's behind more arguments and wars than I want to contemplate.

Also, if anyone does find the article online, let me know?

Reviews: Dream Chaser by Angie Stanton

2012-01-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

Willow has lead her school's cheerleading team to Nationals and is known as the most death-defying flyer on the squad. She's willing to try anything, but one of her flights almost turns fatal during practice one day. Only a quick save by one of her catchers saved her from breaking her neck. Physically, she's fine, but mentally, she knows she can't ever get back in the air. in fact, cheerleading has lost its draw entirely. Her best friend and team member Jilly is not about to let her walk away, though, and Willow knows she needs an air-tight reason she can't come back to the squad. The school's drama production of Dream Chaser might just be the answer.

Before cheer, Willow was a dancer. An amazing dancer who won competitions at all levels and danced with unmatchable passion, but some scared her away from dancing, just like cheer. This something though was over 6 feet and incredibly hot: her co-star Eli McAvoy. Eli and Willow used to dance together and for years they were best friends until Eli wanted more. Willow ran, but now she needs to face the antagonism between her and her on-time best friend and decide where to go from here.

The main concentration is on the show Dream Chaser which involves the best high school performers in the city, no matter what school they attend. Even though she auditioned for the chorus, the director (who also wrote and choreographed the show) casts her as the lead to replace the girl kicked out after two weeks of rehearsals. She's taking over a position no one except the director wants her to have and her co star is none other than her ex-best friend Eli. Can she ignore the taunts and ostracization and work together with Eli or will Willow let Eli down again?

I grew up dancing. It was the only sport I was ever involved in (and, yes, it is a sport) and I love it. I watch So You Think You Can Dance on TV and still choreograph for the students at my old studio. It's awesome. I was never as good as Willow, but I know how much work it takes and I know what she was facing going into this show. The descriptions of the exhaustion and the pain and the determination were spot-on and I loved the heavy involvement in the arts. The main characters were all interesting and I liked watching how the dynamic between the different groups (show cast, director, principle actors, spurned cheerleaders) kept shifting. One thing that bothered me (and bother I think is too strong of a word) were the mentions of Willow's habit of quitting. It seemed like she was an extremely persistent person and determined to succeed in everything, not a quitter. In fact they really only talk about two things she quit: dance and cheer. She had a valid reason for cheer, but a weak one for dance. Still, I don't see how that classifies her as a quitter. Otherwise, I enjoyed this book from start to finish! It began with a bang (as Willow goes splat on the floor) and kept me very interested all the way through. I especially recommend this to anyone interested in performing arts, but honestly anyone who enjoys contemporary YA books will probably like this one.

Sera's Rating: 5/5

Books: Their Secret Lives

2012-01-10T10:18:00.001-05:00

Having worked in a bookstore, I know exactly how hard this was to accomplish. Kudos to Type and all their volunteers!

Review: Rock And A Hard Place by Angie Stanton

2012-01-09T19:29:00.000-05:00

Before I start, I have to say that I have absolutely fallen in love with user reviews on Amazon! I am took a writing break last week (with the minor exception of jotting down ideas that pop into my head so I won't forget them) and so I started browsing Amazon. I've shopped on the site before, but I usually I already knew what I wanted. I've never taken full advantage of the user reviews. I have read twenty-two books in the past ten days (no, I'm not joking, though part of me kind of wishes I was... that much reading might be a sign of some kind of illness) and most of them I would rate at least 4 stars. Even the worst of them would get 3. I bought them based on a few factors, but the deciding point was always the user reviews and so far they have not steered me wrong! Okay, I'm done gushing about the opinions of random strangers. Onto the books!

Libby's entire family was in a horrible car accident. Only Libby and her father walked away, but her father walked away broken and reeling from the loss of his wife and second daughter. Lost in depression, he drops Libby off with her mother's sister, a cranky woman known in town for her temper and her eccentricities. Libby longs for her father to return, but it's been a year and she hasn't even had a letter from him. She has no idea where he is or how to track him down, but even if she did how can she start when she has no phone, no computer, no money, and no friends?

Peter Jamison has lead a life a lot of people dream of, especially since the band he and his brothers formed put out a chart-topping rock album. He writes the songs and he loves performing, but what he really wants is someone who sees who he is behind the rock star, someone who doesn't care about the fame and the fortune. One day when his family's tour bus stops in an out of the way park in Alabama, he meets Libby who amazingly has no idea who he is and has never even heard about his band. Instantly captivated by this refreshingly honest girl, Peter convinces his family to return to this spot between shows so he can get to know her better.

Libby is thrilled to have a friend, someone she can talk to, but Peter's family isn't so happy about this country girl who keeps distracting him from his responsibilities in the band. His older brother makes a choice and Peter loses contact with Libby just when she needs him most. Abandoned and alone, Libby is struggling for her very survival while Peter desperately searches for the girl who has stolen his heart.

I LOVED this book. All of the characters, not just Libby and Peter, were well developed and interesting and the dynamics of this dual narrative drew me in instantly. Peter's family is believable and their interactions well written. Certain sections of Libby's story almost made me cry. I liked Libby's quiet strength and her determination to persevere despite all the obstacles life has thrown in her path and Peter's devotion would have outweighed a lot of faults... but he didn't have any. Peter is actually the paragon of rock stars, exactly the way you hope all your idols are in real life, but his family has a lot to do with that, I think. His parents are both painted as loving and supportive, even if they (like everyone) make mistakes along the way.

Without being overly serious and weighed down by the issues present in this book, Rock and a Hard Place manages to remain uplifting. It's a testament to the power of love, hope, determination, and trust and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes contemporary YA.

Sera's Rating: 5/5

Critiques: Getting Good Feedback And Using It

2012-01-07T09:55:00.000-05:00

Author Janice Hardy.

First, sorry I've been gone for a couple of days! Thursday was very busy and I woke up Friday feeling like death. I'm better now, though, so onto the post!

I've already mentioned Janice Hardy in my post Writers Who Write About Writing, but I only vaguely mentioned a newer section of her blog where she critiques a short section (approx 250 words) of your work in progress or finished manuscript. I submitted the first 250 words of Sing, Sweet Nightingale to her in December and this morning she posted her critique. Her answers are so detailed and helpful I was blown away! You should definitely stop by the site and read through this and all past critique posts, but I am also going to post my 250 words here.

As it stands now, this is the opening to my novel Sing, Sweet Nightingale. I hope you enjoy!

Mariella
Sleeping is the best part of my day. Everything goes slowly downhill from there. Waking up, searching for new music, faking my way through school, studying useless information for hours, suffering through dinner. The only thing I look forward is the buildup of anticipation before it’s finally time to go to sleep.

Can you imagine living like that? What kind of life that would be? I can tell you right now.

It’s no life at all.

That’s why I’m trying so hard to make sure I spend the rest of my life asleep. Who wouldn’t if they had a choice between paradise and Swallow’s Grove?

Hudson
I saw my mom at the grocery store this morning. In most people’s lives, this wouldn’t be a story that goes beyond that sentence. That’s it. I saw my mom at the grocery store this morning. The End. That, however, is not my life.

In my life, this event is much, much more complicated.

Horace forgot that we were almost out of food, so he asked me to make a run for necessities. I don’t think twice about this because A) I don’t really have the right to refuse Horace such a simple request and B) it’s the grocery store. What can happen? I grab a cart at the door and start coasting through the aisles, automatically pulling our usual staples off the shelves as I pass. The normality of it, the routine of the actions, lulls me into complacence; I don’t see the danger until it’s too late.

It’s the hair-raising tingle that alerts me first. My head snaps up and some inner sense I’ve always had immediately locks on to the watcher. I almost drop the glass jar of spaghetti sauce in my hand when my gaze meets my mom’s.

Hudson's chapter continues for another ten pages, but this is the section I sent to Janice Hardy, so this is all I'm posting here. Hope you like it! And please feel free to leave critiques in the comments section.

Review: Sophie & Carter by Chelsea Fine

2012-01-04T08:14:00.001-05:00

Sophie and Carter have lived next door to each other for years, ever since Sophie moved into town in elementary school. They're seniors now and best friends, even if they hide their relationship from the rest of the school. It makes things easier this way, for both of them. Easier to pretend they're normal. Easier to pretend their lives outside of school are normal. But they're not.

Sophie's mom is a prostitute and, in recent years, a drug addict. She disappears for months at a time and leaves Sophie in charge of her three younger siblings. Sophie has to be mother, father, taskmaster, rule maker, bill payer, tutor, and sole support when she should be enjoying high school and preparing for the rest of her life. Carter is physically scarred, but the worst damage is on the inside, the secrets no one but Sophie knows. His father was a brutal monster who abused him and his mother for years. Eventually the mental and physical abuse broke his mother and now her only solace is insanity and alcohol. His father is gone and Carter is the only one left to take care of his poor mother.

This story is as heartbreaking as it is uplifting. It touches on subjects too dark to contemplate and shows how hope, love, trust, and beauty can survive even in hellish circumstances. Chelsea Fine's writing is poetic, but always real and her characters are believable and true. I only had one complaint: it was too short! Sophie and Carter are such beautiful characters and beautiful people that I wanted to see every minute of their days and hear more about their lives--both past and present. Still, it was fabulous to watch them both realize what they've known quietly for years: they are absolutely devoted to and hopelessly in love with each other. If more people persevered through adversity like Sophie and Carter do, the world would be a much better place.

Honestly, I can't recommend this book highly enough. It will captivate you from the minute you start reading (I found it on amazon, read the first chapter, immediately downloaded the Kindle edition, and read it in one sitting) and keep you thinking about it well after you put it down. Despite the strong subject matter, the language and situations don't make it unsuitable for younger readers. However, I would still suggest parental guidance as some of the topics mentioned will probably raise questions you may or may not want to answer.

Sera's Rating: 5/5

Review: Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

2012-01-03T16:53:00.001-05:00

Jordan Woods is not your average girl and she wouldn't be even if she wasn't the captain and quarterback of one of the best high-school football teams in the state. She's six-feet tall and just happens to be the daughter of NFL Quarterback Donovan Woods. Jordan has always been one of the guys, but even though this is how she wants it, it does have certain drawbacks. Like the fact that she's a senior and hasn't been kissed yet. The arrival of Ty Green changes everything.

Suddenly Ty is challenging not only her position on the team, but her sanity, her friendships, and her self-control. She's never wanted anyone this bad and never knew a crush could cause so many problems. To top it all off, her football-star father won't take the time to attend her games or even support her love of his sport, her best friend Sam Henry is upset and won't tell her why, and Alabama State (her dream school) is offering her a scholarship that will probably mean she won't play a game her entire college career. Will Jordan be able to regain control of her life or will the changes that started with Ty ruin everything?

Despite not liking sports, I love sports movies. When I heard about this book, I thought it sounded like a perfect balance. The characters were likable and entertaining and the dialogue was realistic; several times the exchanges between the characters made me laugh. I especially liked Jordan's relationship with her father and how that progressed through the course of the book. It was believable and touching. I also fell in love with Sam Henry, Jordan's best friend. He made me wish I knew someone like him. Ty was hot and an emotional disaster area for very understandable reasons, but I never really liked him much. Maybe it was because I always felt as though he was hiding something and we didn't get to know him as well. The one thing that disturbed me a little was the flippant attitude toward cheating. I can see how this is probably a realistic perspective from inside the guy's locker room (in theory, not in actuality--Jordan uses the girls locker room), but it seemed like Jordan's friends on the team were never with the same girl. And all the girls seemed to be cheerleaders. Either that cheerleading team was huge, or those cheerleaders were very busy...

The book really focuses on three things: Jordan and football, Jordan and her dad, and Jordan and Sam Henry. It's possible one of the reasons I didn't like Ty much is because it was pretty obvious from the beginning that he was only there as a catalyst to set all the other events in motion. All of the main characters have decent development through the book and that's really what kept me reading. I loved their devotion to the team and to each other and Jordan's willingness to fight for what she wanted, even if she forgot what that was somewhere in the middle of the book. She's a strong female character in a male dominated story and sport, but I think she held her own well. I did, however, appreciate that she eventually found girl friends who made her have some connection with the other side of herself.

Light, enjoyable, and fun, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an entertaining, romantic read. Although understanding what a flea-flicker is probably won't hurt. :)

Sera's Rating: 4/5

New Years: Resolution, Resolve, and Reality

2012-01-02T13:10:00.000-05:00

Photo found here.

First, an admission. I have never, ever come close to following through on a list of resolutions. Because I have no resolve? Maybe. Because I set myself overambitious goals? Possibly. Because life can throw you a series of unexpected, life altering, time consuming curve balls? Probably.

Whatever the ~~excuses~~ reasons, it's still a fact. Will this year be different? Who can tell? Am I going to try anyway? Yep.

What does that mean to you? Not much. Posting it online is really just a form of accountability. We'll check in with this next year and see how well I did on all of these.

1. I will redesign my blog with a custom template.

2. I will finish book 2 of my current series.

3. I will polish and shop book 1 of my current series.

4. I will attend at least one conference.

5. I will post in this blog at least three times a week.

6. I will develop the storylines for at least one additional series.

7. I will figure out how to make myself work out... somehow.

8. I will develop some kind of a social life, even if it is a sporadic one.

9. I will budget better so I can either take my dream vacation or move to New York within three years.

10. I will not let more than two days pass without writing something, even if it's only jotting down an idea that passes through my head.

So, there you have it. I figured ten was a nice round number, ambitious without being impossible. Wish me luck! We'll check back in with the list next year!

Learning: Always Ask Questions

2011-12-30T16:36:00.002-05:00

Houck, Viguie, Holder, and Dessen at the MBFI

I mentioned yesterday that one of the best ways to gather reliable information is to directly question experts in the field. When you're talking about something as subjective as writing, though, who can really be considered an "expert"? Do they need a degree? Does having one book published make you an expert or do you not gain expert status until your publications number in the double digits? Who knows? I definitely don't and it's probably not a good idea to waste time trying to come up with a universally acceptable definition.

You won't always be able to meet face to face with a published author, but luckily you have the internet! The internet houses places like the Booktopia Blog which has a list of Ten Terrifying Questions and a huge list of authors who have taken the time to answer them. Browse through the list and you may be surprised by the names you'll find. Fiction, mystery, romance, young adult, and pretty much everything else are represented on this list and you can learn a lot by looking through the answers they give. Below I've copied the answers of young adult author Lauren Kate who wrote Fallen, Torment, and the upcoming Passion.

And, just an fyi, I will be taking the next three days off, but look for a new post on Tuesday! The first of the new year!

Author Lauren Kate

1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
I was born in Dayton, Ohio, but moved to Dallas, Texas when I was two. I grew up in Dallas (where my family still lives, so it’s technically “home” to me). When I was eighteen, I moved to Atlanta, Georgia to go to Emory University. Emory is not far from Savannah (where Fallen is set). Since then, I’ve lived in New York City, Paris, a farm in Northern California, and Los Angeles (where I live now).

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
When I was twelve, I wanted to be a ballerina. I have twenty years of formal ballet training, but I gave it up after college when I was broke and living in New York and couldn’t afford lessons anymore. Plus, as many a ballet teacher told me, I never had the right shaped feet.
When I was eighteen, I wanted to be a writer. I’d started publishing short stories in my high school literary magazine, and wrote my college application essays about being a writer. Still working on that one!
I turn thirty next year, but I already know what I want to be next: A chef. Of some sort. I’m looking into culinary schools and would love to someday work in a restaurant.

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?
One thing I remember feeling very strongly about at eighteen was that I wanted to always stay friends with my ex-boyfriends. HA! I guess I realize now that it’s okay to let people in and out of your life.

Camille Claudel's La Vague

4. What were three works of art – book, painting, piece of music, etc – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?
There’s a sculpture by Camille Claudel called La Vague in the Rodin museum in Paris. I used to live very close by and I think I’ve probably spent more time looking at that sculpture than any other piece of art. It’s as if the artist has frozen the climax of a novel—it shows so much about pacing and drama and tension. And it’s just so beautiful.
My favourite novel is White Noise by Don De Lillo. It’s the book that made me want to be a writer. I read it first when I was eighteen and I try to reread it every year.
I played the song “You Look So Young” by the Jayhawks on repeat just about the entire time I was revising Torment. It’s so torturously beautiful and something about it speaks to the relationship I’m trying to create between Luce and Daniel.

5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?
I was never conscious that I was choosing anything. I just wrote. I wrote songs and poems and stories for a while and then I realized I was much better at the longer stuff. I always had a hard time coming out of a short story. Plus I hate writing endings—the less of them I have to write, the better. So novels it was!

6. Please tell us about your latest novel…
The novel I just finished writing is called Torment. It’s a sequel to my novel, Fallen, and it picks up the romantic saga right where Fallen left off. Luce is beginning to grasp the scope of her relationship with Daniel, her fallen angel boyfriend, and she’s looking forward to happy days in love. But of course, she’s in for a few more surprises before she gets her happily ever after…

7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
I love to read stories that have humour and heart, stories that take me on some sort of unexpected journey. So I hope those are the kinds of stories that I write.

8. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
I love F. Scott Fitzgerald for the brevity and punch of his character descriptions. The way he writes Daisy in The Great Gatsby blows me away every single time I read it.

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
Well, at one point, I wanted to publish a novel before I turned thirty. It looks like I’ll have published four of them by the time I hit the big 3-0. Achieving goals is a wonderful feeling, of course, and I consider myself quite ambitious, but in reality, success and accomplishments never really look the way you thought they were going to in your fantasies. Some things that used to seem really important no longer matter—or is no longer possible. And that’s okay. It helps me to be adaptable and laid back and not expect things to turn out exactly the way I’d envisioned. Some times things even turn out better!

10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?
Live curiously. Make the whole world your muse. Never let yourself get bored—instead: eavesdrop, ask questions, try to learn as much as you can about as many things and as many people as you can. If you live your whole life like a curious person, you’ll never be at a loss for things to write about.

Research: Beware Misconceptions

2011-12-29T12:25:00.000-05:00

See the original here.

I found this XKCD comic online recently and then asked myself, does Wikipedia really have a list of common misconceptions? Another Google search showed me that, yes, they do! How intriguing. Some of the information on this rather long list I already knew, some of it I didn't. What it made clear to me, however, is how easy it is to get something wrong. Misconceptions, misperceptions, and misunderstandings happen all the time. In fact, it's a little scary how easy it is to misunderstand someone.

Since misinformation is so prevalent, how do you know what to believe when doing research for your books? Especially when a lot of research is being done online and all it takes to make a source look legitimate is a good website and a believable url. It's a tricky question and truly depends on the subject. A lot of times, though, finding someone who works in the field and asking them to direct you to reputable sources or answer some questions is the best and safest way to go. If this fails, books published by a reputable house are usually (but not always) safe. Textbooks are safer. You can use the internet as a starting point, but don't let it be the only way you research.

Below the cut line are some of the misconceptions I found interesting, amusing, or weird. Since they're on Wikipedia, I in no way vouch for them being 100% true, but it's still interesting. To see the full list, go here.

There is no evidence that Vikings wore horns on their helmets. In fact, the image of the horned helmet stems from the scenography of an 1876 production of the Der Ring des Nibelungen opera cycle by Richard Wagner. The actual Viking helmets were practical battle gear, and had a rather plain appearance.

There is no evidence that iron maidens were invented in the Middle Ages or even used for torture. Instead they were pieced together in the 18th century from several artifacts found in museums in order to create spectacular objects intended for (commercial) exhibition.

Christopher Columbus's efforts to obtain support for his voyages were not hampered by a European belief in a flat Earth. Sailors and navigators of the time knew that the Earth was roughly spherical, but (correctly) disagreed with Columbus's estimate of the distance to India, which was approximately one-sixth of the actual distance. If the Americas did not exist, and had Columbus continued to India, he would have run out of supplies before reaching it at the rate he was traveling. Without the ability to determine longitude at sea, he could not have noticed that his estimate was an error in time to return. This longitude problem remained unsolved until the 18th century, when the lunar distance method emerged in parallel with efforts by inventor John Harrison to create the first marine chronometers. The intellectual class had known that the Earth was spherical since the works of the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. Eratosthenes made a very good estimate of the Earth's diameter in approximately 240 BCE. See also: Myth of the Flat Earth .

Marie Antoinette did not actually use the phrase "let them eat cake" when she heard that the French peasantry was starving due to a shortage of bread. The phrase was first published in Rousseau's Confessions when Marie was only 10 years old and most scholars believe that Rousseau coined it himself, or that it was said by Maria-Theresa, the wife of Louis XIV. Even Rousseau (or Maria-Theresa) did not use the exact words but actually Qu'ils mangent de la brioche ("Let them eat brioche [a rich type of bread]"). Marie Antoinette was a very unpopular ruler and many people therefore attribute the phrase "let them eat cake" to her, in keeping with her reputation as being hard-hearted and disconnected from her subjects.

Napoleon Bonaparte was not particularly short, and did not have a Napoleon complex. After his death in 1821, the French emperor’s height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in French feet. This corresponds to 5 feet 6.5 inches in modern international feet, or 1.69 metres. Some believe that he was nicknamed le Petit Caporal (The Little Corporal) as a term of affection.

Albert Einstein did not fail mathematics in school, as is commonly believed. Upon being shown a column claiming this fact, Einstein said "I never failed in mathematics... Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus."

Entrapment law in the United States does not require police officers to identify themselves as police in the case of a sting or other undercover work. The law is specifically concerned with enticing people to commit crimes they would not have considered in the normal course of events.

Sushi does not mean "raw fish", and not all sushi includes raw fish. The name sushi means "sour rice", and refers to the vinegared rice used in it. Sushi is made with sumeshi, rice which has been gently folded with rice vinegar, salt, and sugar dressing. The rice is traditionally topped by raw fish, cooked seafood, fish roe, egg, and/or vegetables such as cucumber, daikon radish, and avocado. The related Japanese term sashimi is closer in definition to "raw fish", but still not quite accurate: Sashimi can also refer to any uncooked meat or vegetable, and usually refers more to the dish's presentation than to its ingredients. The dish consisting of sushi rice and other fillings wrapped in seaweed is called makizushi, and includes both "long rolls" and "hand rolls".

Lemmings do not engage in mass suicidal dives off cliffs when migrating. They will, however, occasionally unintentionally fall off cliffs when venturing into unknown territory, with no knowledge of the boundaries of the environment. This misconception was popularized by the Disney film White Wilderness, which shot many of the migration scenes (also staged by using multiple shots of different groups of lemmings) on a large, snow-covered turntable in a studio. Photographers later pushed the lemmings off a cliff. The misconception itself is much older, dating back to at least the late nineteenth century.

Drowning is often thought to be a violent struggle, where the victim waves and calls for help. In truth, drowning is often inconspicuous to onlookers. Raising the arms and vocalising are even usually impossible due to the instinctive drowning response. Waving and yelling (known as "aquatic distress") is a sign of trouble, but not a dependable one: most victims demonstrating the instinctive drowning response do not show prior evidence of distress.

Humans have more than five senses. Although definitions vary, the actual number ranges from 9 to more than 20. In addition to sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing, which were the senses identified by Aristotle, humans can sense balance and acceleration (equilibrioception), pain (nociception), body and limb position (proprioception or kinesthetic sense), and relative temperature (thermoception). Other senses sometimes identified are the sense of time, itching, pressure, hunger, thirst, fullness of the stomach, need to urinate, need to defecate, and blood carbon dioxide levels.

Schizophrenia is not the same thing as dissociative identity disorder, namely split or multiple personalities. Etymologically, the term "schizophrenia" comes from the Greek roots skhizein (σχίζειν, "to split") and phrēn, phren- (φρήν, φρεν-; "mind") and is a juxtaposition proposed by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, which may have given rise to this common misconception.

Nowhere in the Old Testament or the New Testament is Satan described as dwelling in or ruling over hell.

It has been widely believed that Macintosh computers are immune to malware, such as viruses, though recent developments are correcting this belief. Although much less frequently than computers running Microsoft Windows, they can and do get malware.

Technology: Who Was The First?

2011-12-28T09:42:00.001-05:00

Photo of Matthew G. Kirschenbaum taken from article.

History is marked by "firsts" and made by those who risk everything on new technology, new ideas, or new trends. Gutenberg earned his place by being the first to create movable type. Henry Ford is a household name not because he invented the automobile, but because he was the first to take that idea and make it accessible to the rest of the world. George Washington, our first president. Amelia Earhart, the first woman to make a transatlantic flight. René François Armand "Sully" Prudhomme, the first winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Before the huge technology boom of the last few decades, firsts were well recorded. We know with relative certainty that Mark Twain was the first author to turn in a manuscript created on a typewriter (Life on the Mississippi) and Jack Kerouc made history with his 120-foot long roll of paper containing the first draft of On the Road. The New York Times has an interesting article on the scroll if you're interested. You can read it here. But what about the first author to submit a document created on a word processor? Who were the early adopters of that technology?

While literary historians know that Stephen King bought one of the earliest editions of the Mac home computer in the 1980s, was he the first author to do so? And after that? Who was the first to move to PC? Or to write a book on an iPad? Do we even care? Matthew Kirschenbaum, an associate professor of English at the University of Maryland, does.

Mr. Kirschenbaum is looking into the literary history of word processors. The author of the NYT article, Jennifer Schuessler, made an interesting point in the article. She says,

The study of word processing may sound like a peculiarly tech-minded task for an English professor, but literary scholars have become increasingly interested in studying how the tools of writing both shape literature and are reflected in it, whether it’s the quill pen of the Romantic poets or the early round typewriter, known as a writing ball, that Friedrich Nietzsche used to compose some aphoristic fragments. (“Our writing tools are also working on our thoughts,” Nietzsche typed.)

And it's true. Word processing and the internet has streamlined the creative process, making it easier to write, research, and daydream. It provides us with more opportunities and more distractions than any authors in history have had to deal with and thus changes the way we think and write. Does it make our work more disposable because the very medium we're using to create it is so quickly thrown away? Or will quality endure just like it has for centuries? It's something to ponder, but not the point here.

Let's get back on track:

Mr. Kirschenbaum, whose earlier book, “Mechanisms,” analyzed experimental electronic writing, said he was less interested in analyzing the stylistic impact of word processing than in recovering its early history, particularly its adoption by mainstream writers. And in his lecture, sponsored by NYPL Labs, a unit of the library devoted to experimental technology, he ticked off some of the better-documented moments in that history. Tom Clancy wrote his 1984 thriller “The Hunt for Red October,” often cited as one of the earliest word-processed best sellers, on an Apple IIe, using WordStar software. And Jimmy Carter set off what may have been the first word-processing-related panic in 1981, when he accidentally deleted several pages of his memoir in progress by hitting the wrong keys on his brand-new $12,000 Lanier, a calamity noted in The New York Times.

Given the spottiness of the record Mr. Kirschenbaum is hesitant to proclaim Mr. King the computer-age equivalent of Mark Twain, the first major American writer to complete a work using the new technology. But Mr. King’s 1983 short story “The Word Processor,” Mr. Kirschenbaum ventured, is “likely the earliest fictional treatment of word processing by a prominent English-language author.”

It's a fascinating subject to someone who grew up in the computer boom and actually watched computers get bigger and more powerful before suddenly becoming smaller and even more powerful. But one topic in particular intrigued me most about this article. Jennifer talks about Stephen King's story "The Word Processor" and how it came to be:

Photo found here.
The story, published in Playboy (later retitled “Word Processor of the Gods”), certainly captured the unsettling ghostliness of the new technology, which allowed writers to correct themselves without leaving even the faintest trace. In the story a frustrated schoolteacher discovers that by erasing sentences about his enemies he can delete them entirely from the universe and insert himself in their place, a reflection of Mr. King’s fascination with his Wang System 5’s “insert,” ”delete” and “execute” keys, recounted in the introduction to his 1985 story collection, “Skeleton Crew.” “Writers are used to playing God, but suddenly now the metaphor was literal,” Mr. Kirschenbaum said in the lecture.

Having never written an entire book on paper (or evenon a typewriter) will I ever know how much the computer has changed the way I would have written in a different era? Who can know, but it's something to keep in mind. Who knows? Maybe the escape, control and home keys will inspire my next book. ;)

Websites: Common Mistakes

2011-12-27T13:36:00.001-05:00

Photo found here.

Mixed messages are everywhere and the information coming to new or aspiring authors is no exception. One of the biggest of these involves self-promotion and websites.

Almost everyone recommends authors have a web presence through their own site as well as social media like Facebook and Twitter. The social media pages are simple to set up and most of us already make use of these pages in our daily lives. Setting up a website from scratch? Not quite as easy.

When I started my first website sometime in 2007, I used Microsoft Office Live. Not only did this service (at the time) offer free webhosting and free simple design software, they gave you a free domain name! It seemed perfect and, for a first website, it was. I attempted to have a blog on that site simply by adding text to a page with dates, but the format annoyed me pretty quickly. A few months after I started the website, I started a Blogger blog and, for a while, cross posted everything on both sites. Eventually I stopped cross posting and simply added notifications to the website that new content had been added to the blog. But then I dropped of the face of the interwebs for a while. When I finally resurfaced this year I looked at my website and realized I hated it. The webhosting was still free, but I had to pay for my domain name. The design software was still simple, but it was annoyingly limited. Then I looked at my blog. Most of my interesting content was already hosted on my blog and in the intervening year Blogger had added a really cool new tool called Pages. This featured allowed me to create static pages with whatever content I want. How awesome is that? It didn't take me long to decide to scrap the Microsoft site entirely and bring my domain name over to Blogger.

For me, Blogger works as a site. In a few years once I actually have some books published and my promotional needs change, it might not work as well. For now, however, it's perfect. I like posting content about writing because not only does it help whoever happens to stumble across the post, it helps me keep up to date on the ever-changing industry. There are a few people who have been following me ever since the beginning of the blog and even came back after my long hiatus, but for people who are just discovering my corner of the internet there's a wealth of posts for them to browse through.

As easy and convenient as Blogger (and similar sites like Wordpress) is, it's not for everyone. If you don't plan on posting much or find after you start that you can't keep up the pace, having a blog-centered site might actually hurt your promotional goals: having no website is better than having a bad website. However, there is hope!

If you're a die-hard do-it-yourselfer, there are a few websites you can check out that list the most common mistakes author websites make and how to spot and then avoid them. Jane Friedman talks specifically about Blogger and Wordpress and the problems of using a blog-centered website. Designer Karin Bilich goes into detail about the design issues she faces working with authors on their websites. Last but not least, The Creative Penn hosted a guest blog by founder of Writing Forward Melissa Donovan about common mistakes authors make on their websites. All of these posts provide useful tools and tips that won't hurt and may help your website.

If you don't mind asking for help, there are a wide range of services available online from the cost-effective to the full-service luxury packages. Different designers will specialize in working with different hosting services, so if you don't already have a site established, find a designer (preferably one who has worked with authors before) and listen to their input. That is, after all, what you're paying them for, right?

Writing: Grammar Laws Or Grammar Opinions?

2011-12-26T11:01:00.003-05:00

Photo found here.

As a writer, you must have a relationship with grammar, even if it's a dysfunctional one. For example, my childhood.

Placed in the "gifted" program in second grade, I was always expected to do well in school. For the most part, I conformed to these expectations, but not always. Multiplication escaped me entirely for three years. Geography I found insanely boring and thus failed miserably in my ability to remember the locations and capitals of all fifty states. The most inexplicable failure on the part of my brain, however, was my horrendous spelling and poor grasp of grammar laws.

Somehow, I had an innate understanding of proper grammar and normally used words and phrases correctly, yet despite a reading level years above my actual age, I sucked at picking out the parts of a sentence and--as my mother used to say--"couldn't spell my way out of a paper bag". That usage has always confused me as I can't understand how spelling something correctly would help me escape a paper bag, but I digress... The actual point is grammar and structure and spelling were never interests of mine, but stories have always been my first love. So here I am years later attempting to make a career out of storytelling and using the very rules and guidelines I never bothered trying to understand in school. At least I know I'm not alone in this struggle.

Grammar is fluid, its rules and structure changing with a language that evolves every day. New words and newly acceptable usages are appearing every day. Although some seem to point to the future decline of our ability to communicate clearly (idk jk ltftw!) others are simply loosening of archaic structures that now mimic more clearly the way we use language in everyday conversation. Some of these more mutable topic are taught as rules when they're actually guidelines--or just plain wrong. Online College has a post covering the 20 Most Controversial Rules in the Grammar World and Lists o' Plenty has a List o' Top Ten Commonly Believed English Grammar Myths. Some of the "rules" are repeated on both pages, but it's an interesting read nonetheless for writers or grammarians.

Photo found here.

In essence, grammar rules, like Legos, are building blocks. Read the instructions, know how the pieces fit together, and then use them to suit you. Not everyone will follow every rule and not everyone needs to. Sometimes the most interesting, innovative stories come from breaking the "laws" of grammar. And who knows, the "rule" you follow by rote today may just be a suggestion tomorrow.

Holidays: Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T12:00:00.000-05:00

Christmas is overly commercialized and stressful. That being said, people do get pretty crazy and pretty creative during the holiday season. So to celebrate the day, here are some awesome, scary, funny, cool, or unique Christmas related pictures I found on the internet.

Merry Christmas!

Photo found here.

Photo found on Facebook.

Photo found here.

Well, there is good news and bad news about my Christmas decorations. The good news is that I truly outdid myself this year. The bad news is that I had to take them down after only two days.

I had more people than ever come screaming up to my house. Great stories.

Two things made me take it all down. First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents since they almost had a wreck when they drove by. Second, a 65-year-old lady grabbed the ladder and almost killed herself putting it against my house. She didn’t realize the "decoration" was fake until she climbed to the top. (She was not happy.) She was one of many people who attempted to do that.

My yard couldn’t take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard. I think I made him too real this time. But it was fun while it lasted!

Photo found here.

Questions: Wondering Why

2011-12-22T18:21:00.000-05:00

Photo found here.

Controversy: Should You Use It In Your Writing?

2011-12-22T11:20:00.000-05:00

Photo found here.

Controversy is surprisingly easy to find. If you want to, you could live your entire life in controversy with someone but why in the world would you want to? Whether it's any good to have in life or not, controversy is useful, and possibly essential, in writing. However, this is only true when it's used correctly. Some good examples can be found in the following (books are listed as I remember them, so in no particular order):

1. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - Controversial subject: rape
2. 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher - Controversial subject: suicide and bullying
3. The Color of Water by James McBride - Controversial subject: race and class struggles
4. Shine by Lauren Myracle - Controversial subject: homosexuality and hate crimes
5. Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen - Controversial subject: abuse and neglect of children
6. After by Amy Efaw - Controversial subject: teen pregnancy and infanticide
7. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult - Controversial subject: prenatal genetic modification
8. Room by Emma Donoghue - Controversial subject: kidnapping, assault, and survival

This list is by no means complete, but all of these books are sitting on the shelves of my closet right now, so I can vouch for them. All of these books approach very different subjects from very different angles, but they all have at least one thing in common: they take a serious, multi-prong look at a very serious subject that can, has, or will affect hundreds or thousands of people. As long as you don't treat the subject lightly (I'm not saying you can't make a serious subject funny; just look at the movie 50/50), you should be able to handle any subject in a way that will only offend about a third of the people who read it.

What brought this up? Recently George Takei posted a link on Facebook to an article about a pair of identical twin boys, one of whom, at the age of fourteen, is in the process of undergoing gender reassignment and has changed her name from Wyatt to Nicole.

Photo found here.

There is so much drama, tension, and controversy inherent in this story (and you really should read the entire article no matter what side of the fence you're on; it's incredibly interesting and enlightening). I would not be surprised to find at least a handful of authors inspired by this story and now feverishly building a story around an idea similar to the story of Nicole and Jonas Maines.

Writing: It's Not Just About The Words You Put On The Page

2011-12-21T11:28:00.000-05:00

Writing is not the only profession affected by this in the current market, but if you're trying to become a professional writer (fiction, non-fiction, freelance, etc) this is an important list to keep in mind. Many thanks to Robert Lee Brewer (whose name is NOT Bob) for posting this on his blog.

Photo found here.

Here are the 8 jobs of modern writers:

Writer. Believe it or not, the writing should always come first. If the other seven jobs ever start to overwhelm you, remember to fall back on the writing. That's your bread and butter as a writer.
Editor. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that someone else can correct all your mistakes. Sure, an editor will help improve (or at least alter) your writing, but that's only after your work has been accepted. Your job as a writer is not just to string words and sentences together; it's to string the best words and sentences together--with a minimum of grammar and spelling mistakes.
Copywriter. Jane Friedman wrote a great post about why this is important over at Writer Unboxed. Copywriting skills are needed for everything from writing query letters to bio notes.
File clerk. Once your writing is great and your query skills pay the bills, you need the ability to keep accurate records. The WritersMarket.com site I edit offers a submission tracker tool, but writers need to also keep track of bills, payments, and expenses--for tax purposes. It's not fun for most people (raising my hand), but it's essential to freelance success.
Negotiator. Here are my negotiation tips for writers--from the perspective of an editor. Put them to good use. For tips from the writer's perspective, check out this post by Carol Tice. You don't have to be super pushy to be a good negotiator--sometimes all you need to do is ask.
Accountant. This is sort of related to number four, but money complicates everything and needs an extra level of care. If you're trying to make a business out of your writing, you'll need to keep receipts and accurate records of payments, expenses, bills, etc., that are related to your writing. If you go to a conference, that's a business expense, including the hotel, mileage, etc. Learn more in the 2012 Writer's Market, which has a great piece on this subject by full-time freelancer Sage Cohen.
Marketer. Most writers don't want to think about this job. After all, many are introverts. Then, there are the extroverted writers who actually want to move this ahead of the writing on the list of jobs. However, I think the writing always comes first, but writers have to build a platform. It's essential to building your brand as a freelance writer and making you visible to potential opportunities.
Speaker. Speaking of introverted writers, I'm sure most are spitting their coffee all over the computer screens in disbelief that I would include number eight as an essential job of modern writers. However, it's true. Many of the best opportunities (both for platform building and making money) for writers moving forward will involve speaking. You don't have to be the best speaker ever, but speaking is a skill that you work on and can improve over time. Trust me, I used to think it was impossible, and I still get nervous, but I am much better now than I used to be. Click here for a few of my tips on speaking.

Retail: The Gripes of A Bookstore Employee

2011-12-20T17:36:00.000-05:00

Having spent most of my day at a mall (eww), it brings me back to my days as a retail employee during the holiday season. When the bookstores began to die, a few stores gave up the veneer of complacency and decided to tell customers exactly why they've gotten on our nerves over the years. Having lived through two years of Borders I can vouch that all of these are true. All of them and then some. >.< So, in the spirit of the season, here are some things NOT to do when you go into most stores. Chances are if you avoid these errors, you'll get better service. ;)

Photo found here.

Things We Never Told You: Ode To A Bookstore Death

We hate when a book becomes popular simply because it was turned into a movie.

It confused us when we were asked where the non-fiction section is.

Nicholas Sparks is not a good writer … if you like him, fine, but facts are facts.

We greatly dislike the phrase "Quick question." It's never true. And everyone seems to have one.

Your summer reading list was our summer reading NIGHTMARE. Also, it's called summer reading, not three days before school starts reading.

It's true that we lean to the left and think Glenn Beck is an idiot.

We always knew when you were intently reading Better Homes and Gardens, it was really a hidden Playboy.

Most of the time when you returned books you read them already - and we were onto you.

Limit One Coupon did not mean one for every member of your family - this angered us. Also, we did know what coupons were out.

It never bothered us when you threatened to shop at Barnes & Noble. We'd rather you do if you're putting up a stink.

"I was just here last week and saw this book there" meant nothing to us. The store changed once a week.

When you walked in and immediately said, "I'm looking for a book," what you really meant to say is, "I would like you to find me a book." You never looked. It's fine, it's our job - but let's be correct about what's really happening here.

If you don't know the author, title, or genre, but you do know the color of the cover, we don't either. How it was our fault that we couldn't find it we'll never understand.

We were never a daycare. Letting your children run free and destroy our section destroyed a piece of our souls.

Oprah was not the "final say" on what is awesome. We really didn't care what was on her show or what her latest book club book was. Really.

When you returned your SAT books, we knew you used them. We thought it wasn't fair - seeing that we are not a library.

Writer's Block: Share The Blame!

2011-12-19T09:41:00.000-05:00

I found this online... Who knew?!

Photo found here.

Publication: Is The Grass Always Greener?

2011-12-18T11:13:00.003-05:00

Photo found here.

Say you work very hard on your manuscript, you get a recommendation from a published friend that lands you an agent, and that agent happens to have lunch with an editor who then decides to buy your book. You did it! You're a published author! Now what?

Some aspiring writers believe that as soon as they get that phone call from their agent saying someone has offered them a contract, their life is set and all they have to do from there on out is attend signings and conferences and write the next book. Sometimes, this isn't the case. In fact, I'm willing to bet it's never the case, even if you're someone like Stephen King or Stephenie Meyer. Some days are going to be great! You read a fabulous review of your book, receive a royalty check, and get a call from your agent saying the movie option for your book is now under contract. Other days? Not so much. A 1 star review on top of a low (or non-existent) royalty check and dead silence from your agent and your editor can make you start wondering why in the world you work so hard if you're not really getting anything in return.

Jody Hedlund, author of inspirational romance, posted on her blog about what happens after publication and the struggle many midlist authors go through on their bad days.

Before publication, most of us have dreams of what we think being a published author will be like. And the more we rub shoulders with other writers and fan the flame for publication, the larger our dreams become, until we’ve made being a published author into this HUGE, BIG deal—perhaps bigger than it really is.

Isn’t it that way with most things out of our reach? We long for something. But the more it’s denied us, the more intensely we want it. And we start to think it will be SO fabulous when we finally get it.

Our expectations grow with our longing, until eventually, our expectations are slightly (or maybe greatly) out of proportion with reality.

She makes some excellent points and although I've seen some of them made before, it's always good to read these reminders from people on the other side of the fence that the grass isn't always greener. I searched around Jody's blog (which you might want to do as well) and also discovered a post on what to do with reviews. Using examples from user reviews on Amazon, she shows you how contradictory the feedback you get can be:

About the romance:

“The scenes where the husband and wife are falling in love with each other are a little intense. Nothing vulgar or across any lines, but enough to make me blush at times.”

“I soured on inspirational romance in part because I didn't feel it dealt realistically with the physical attraction between men and women. The tension and desire between Priscilla and Eli in The Doctor's Lady, however, is tangible. Jody handles it so tastefully that even people accustomed to the hand-holding-only atmosphere of other inspirational romances won't be offended by it.”

About the hero:

“At first, I didn't particularly care for Eli. I thought him crass and kind of a jerk.”

“It didn't take me long to fall in love with Eli's strong, but gentle ways. Wow, he sure sounded like a hunk.”

About the story development:

“I was bit disappointed. Not completely, because I was very impressed with Jody's writing, and I will definitely pick up more from her. The Doctor's Lady isn't about the Whitman's mission with the Nez Perce. It's completely about their journey to the Nez Perce . . . I was just hoping there was more of the plot actually involving Native Americans.”

“I love every part of this book: the adventurous journey, the interaction with the natives, the beautiful description of nature, the struggle and courage of the characters, everything!”

About the ending:

“Although the end is predictable, the journey there is heart-wrenching and engaging - never flat.”

“By the end of this book you feel things coming together and I felt like I could just explode in emotions and tears of joy and I was sad that it had to come to an end. This is one of those books that although you are satisfied with the ending, you are disappointed that you are done reading about the characters that moved your life!”

Comparing my first two books:

“After disliking Jody's first book, The Preacher's Bride, I was pleasantly surprised by Jody's second book, The Doctor's Lady, and I enjoyed reading it very much.”

“This is a good traditional romance, and while it lacks the power of Hedlund's first novel The Preacher's Bride, it will keep readers hooked to finally see Eli and Priscilla admit their love for each other.”

What in the world are you supposed to do with such dichotomous comments? Jody reminds writers that "Everyone will view a book through his or her own worldview glasses. Our religious beliefs, values, expectations, personalities, likes/dislikes—all of that will come into play for how we experience a story." You always have to keep this in mind or you'll go crazy trying to get EVERYONE to like your story. It's not going to happen. Ever. To anyone. Just look at the Twilight series if you want proof. Sure, it's blasted its way to the top of the charts in both movie and book form, but for every thousand people who call themselves Twihards and fill their homes with Twilight memorabilia, there are a hundred others who spend their days writing articles that "prove" Edward is abusive, Bella is an idiot, and Stephenie Meyer is trying to tell everyone that girls are weak and need to be protected. And the more fervent her supporters got, the more furious her naysayers got. Trust me. I first read Twilight back in 2006 and I watched from inside the fandom as the negativity mounted along with the positive reinforcement. It would be enough to shake anybody's confidence.

My point? Concentrate on the things you can control--your work and your outlook. The future and all the good and bad it will bring shall come eventually. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, and try to be happy even if you end up somewhere in between.

Publication: Advice On How To Get There

2011-12-17T16:54:00.001-05:00

Photo found here.

There is no easy answer to this question and no road map for you to follow.

Just so we're clear.

There are, however, steps you can take and things you can try that might get you one step closer to publication. Agent Rachelle Gardner offers some tips, but no one can make you promises. Other agents and bloggers have as well and, in a nutshell, their combined advice is as follows.

One, improve your writing. In fact, this is kind of a must. If your book is not absolutely the best you can make it, don't even think about submitting it and please, please step away from thoughts about self-publishing. For advice on how to improve without spending a lot of money, check out Elizabeth Spann's post or my version of the same.

Two, enter contests. I mentioned this in my post on improving, but it's a subject that is worth repeating. Romance Writers of America has a list of contests for 2012 here (chapter hosted contests) including a few for unpublished manuscripts. Many others exist for both published and unpublished authors and a Google search can help you turn up ones relevant to your genre.

Three, fine-tune your query letter, but stay away from query-letter services. I've read from multiple reliable sources that most agents can instantly spot a pre-fab query letter and using one of these will not get you on their good side. Free services for query letter critiques include sites like Critique Circle and Query Shark that can provide edits once you have a letter written, but if you're struggling to get a solid letter on paper (or on computer) try one (or a few) of these resources:

Agent Query - How to Write a Query Letter
Query Shark - just reading through the posts can be enormously helpful
Writer Beware Blogs - How to Write a Query Letter
Nathan Bransford - How to Write a Query Letter

These are just a few of the thousands of sites available, but they are sites I know are reputable and thorough. The advice they offer is more valuable than gold and you should treat it as such.

Four, find an agent to query. Do your research and don't bother querying agents who A) aren't accepting submissions, B) don't represent your genre, C) show up on Writer's Beware, D) ask for money before reading your query, E) don't follow the guidelines of the Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR). They don't have to actually be a member of the AAR, but even those who aren't should follow the ethical guidelines established by this organization. To find an agent you should do some Google searches or search through the databases of Agent Query (free) or Writer's Market (subscription required). These sources include most of the agents currently working in the industry and will be invaluable in your search.

Five, attend conferences and pitch sessions. You can do a Google search for conferences in your area, but unless you live in New York or California, you will probably have to travel for most of the major events. Personally, I hope to attend the RWA conference, the New York Book Expo, and the NYC Pitch and Shop Conference in 2012. These types of conferences are a fantastic way to meet other writer and industry professionals and maybe start forming a network. Often, skill alone isn't enough. A single recommendation can go a long, long way.

Six, think positive. This may seem silly, but it's important. Crucial, even. Getting published can be a long, winding, uphill road and letting yourself feel negative is one step closer to letting yourself quit. If you want it bad enough, you'll get there come hell or high water. Just remember that each rejection you get is one closer to an acceptance and each bad review is one more way you can make your work better.

This probably seems like a lot of work. That's because it is. There is another route to publication, the DIY path, but since the weight of every single decision rests on your shoulders, you have to make sure you do your research before committing to this. J.A. Konrath has a lot of information on his blog about self-publishing even if he sometimes phrases his opinions in ways that tend to offend. Not me, but I've seen it happen. New sites with advice or offers of publishing services are popping up every day, but do your research before signing with a company. It's free to load your ebook onto Amazon or Barnes & Noble, so don't pay for anything you don't have to. This is a very valid option, but not one I've done a ton of research on, so I can't offer much more advice on the subject. Not anything that I've personally tested, anyway.

So, here it is. Hopefully, it helps someone. Satisfaction is in no way guaranteed, but it's a possibility.

Writing: Don't Let Interruptions Get You Down

2011-12-17T16:10:00.000-05:00

Photo found here.

In my apparently ongoing series on how to use your life and your world as sources of inspiration, I bring you my post on interruptions.

I recently followed Penguin (the publisher, not the Batman villain) on Twitter and they posted a link to a short article by author Virginia Lowell.

Despite my love for cats, I gave Olivia Greyson, owner of The Gingerbread House, a Yorkshire terrier. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up with dogs and love them dearly. However, Olivia has a dog because of yet another interruption to my doomed writing schedule. One sunny summer afternoon, while I was writing Cookie Dough or Die, I glanced up to see a huge black Labrador on our tiny back porch. He stared at me with friendly intensity as if he’d checked out a few homes in the area and chosen ours. I tried to ignore him and get back to work, but it was hopeless. Those limpid brown eyes….

No family in our neighborhood included a black Lab, but my visitor was clearly someone’s pet. I joined him on the porch for a chat. I learned he was friendly, a gentle giant, and eager to follow me anywhere. I also realized he had no collar. With the Lab trotting beside me, I walked across the street, where my neighbor gardened while her feisty little Yorkshire terrier protected the perimeter. When the Yorkie caught a whiff of black Lab on his territory, he let loose a torrent of deafening yaps. Yorkies are like that. It struck me that he had no idea how small he was. In response, my sweet newfound buddy—did I mention he was the biggest Lab I’d ever seen?—bunched his substantial muscles and roared at the little guy. Things were not going well. War was averted when my neighbor grabbed her Yorkie and locked him inside her backyard fence. He kept yapping, but at least no blood was shed. The Lab relaxed at once. He seemed happy to hang with us while we discussed how to find his owner.

The story has a happy ending. While we talked, we noticed a van driving slowly down the road. The Lab’s family had been searching for him for close to an hour. When the van’s back door opened, the Lab leaped inside and settled next to an overjoyed little boy. Frazzled Mom explained the dog had escaped from their fenced back yard, and he couldn’t wear a collar due to an allergy. All was well. And I’d lost a chunk of precious writing time.

Back in my living room, I lifted my laptop lid and knew at once that Olivia needed a Yorkshire terrier. And Spunky was born. Spunky escaped from a puppy mill and wandered the streets of Baltimore before a rescue group caught up with him. He is smart, brave, and noisy… and he has proven himself helpful when there’s a murder to be solved. Next I gave Chatterley Heights’ gangly young deputy sheriff, Cody, a gigantic black Lab, prone to running away. Unlike the dogs in my real life adventure, however, Spunky and Buddy are the best of pals.

When I read a good story, I sense the author’s deep involvement in life, combined with a habit of noticing the small yet telling details. I love those stories. And I always wish I’d written them! So now when my concentration is under assault, I think of Spunky and Buddy, and I remind myself to be open to the interruptions. Because it’s during the interruptions that life happens.

Photo found here.

Like Virginia's story about the dog or like Kanye West breaking into Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV awards, you can't predict what will happen during a day or even during the next hour. Of course you have to budget writing time, but don't block yourself off from the world either. The world is where the stories are.

Writing: Ways To Help Yourself Improve

2011-12-17T15:46:00.000-05:00

Photo found here.

As a writer, you should always be looking for ways to make your writing better, tighter, more creative, etc. Even producing a New York Times #1 Bestseller doesn't mean you can breathe a sigh of relief and lie back to wait for the money to roll in. This means you have even more pressure from yourself and everyone else to do it again. What do you do, though, when you're still trying to make it to the point of publication but you don't have a lot of money to invest in training and out-of-town conferences? Mystery writer Elizabeth Spann has some tips.

In her blog post Inexpensive Ways to Improve Your Writing, Elizabeth says "I was speaking to a lady the other day who is an aspiring author. She has been researching ways of improving her writing, but told me that everything seemed so expensive—the classes, the conferences, etc. It could be expensive to improve our writing, but it doesn’t have to be." And she is absolutely right.

Elizabeth reminds authors to utilize your local library which should stock things like the most current Writer's Market and numerous books on writing. Another good point is that it doesn't matter when those books were written (with the exception of Writer's Market, of course) because solid writing is solid writing no matter how long ago those tips were written. Other free ideas? Online resources like writer's blogs and websites (if you've never stopped by Holly Lisle's site, do yourself a favor and go) and the feedback you can get from other writers and conscientious readers. This is really my favorite form of improvement--the thrill and the devastation of a really brutal edit. If you don't know anyone who can offer this service to you there are sites that can help pair you with a beta reader (Elizabeth recommends Clarissa Draper's match-up linky) or sites like Critique Circle where you can post your work for critiques in exchange for critiquing other people's She also suggests reading. Get a library card and you have millions of books at your fingertips for the low, low cost of nothing (unless you're forgetful and don't return them on time). Or, to avoid late fees, most libraries will also loan out ebook copies of many titles. You can also download most of the classics that have gone out of copyright for free from sites like Project Gutenberg.

On the cheap there are also multiple options. Online classes offered through organizations like Romance Writers of America (classes which are not only about romance writing) are usually between $10-$40 and are available even if you're not a member. Once you have a manuscript, you can also enter contents offered through RWA and other similar organizations. Entry fees are usually less than fifty dollars and winning could give you the edge you need in the quest for representation.

Also, it's something to keep in mind that any money you spend on classes, membership fees, travel and hotel stay for conferences, research, reading material, etc is usually tax deductible. Keep your receipts and you may get a lot of the money you spend back when you file your taxes.

Funny: In The Meantime...

2011-12-16T16:09:00.003-05:00

Sorry about the absence! I found out earlier this week that I have extra paid time off I didn't know about, so I shall be taking it next week. That decision, however, means that I have a lot to finish up before then. PLUS, my sister arrived from Wednesday night. A real post shall be coming later, but in the meantime here's something to amuse, annoy, and keep you entertained. :D

Photo found here.

Edited to add: I totally miscalculated. I'm just getting home and it's after midnight my time. So... posts tomorrow! Three, in fact, to make up for my absence!

Technical Issues: By The Way...

2011-12-14T19:09:00.001-05:00

Photo found here.

While browsing through a couple of other blogs, it came to my attention that Google will be discontinuing their friend connect widgets for non-Blogger blogs. Since my blog is hosted on Blogger, this doesn't change anything for me, but it might for people who are using it to follow my blog. So, in the interest of fairness, I've added a secondary follower service through Networked Blogs. Anyone who doesn't like the friend connect service, or anyone who won't continue using it once the widgets go away in March can also follow Incandescent via Networked Blogs, by RSS feed, or by email.

Just so you know. :)

Question: What Makes A Story?

2011-12-14T09:56:00.003-05:00

sto·ry [stawr-ee, stohr-ee] noun, plural -ries, verb, -ried, -ry·ing. noun
1. a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader; tale.

This definition is not untrue, but it is somewhat limited. Who says a story must be limited to prose or verse? One could argue that music is included in this definition as most would agree songs are written in verse, but what about other forms of art? Does being a painter, sculptor, pianist, or photographer preclude one from being a storyteller? I argue emphatically NO. Take, for example, the photograph below:

Photographer Caitlin Trantham. Visit this page to see more.

This incredibly beautiful photograph is a story in itself. Small details like her wedding ring add depth to the story and help you piece together what has happened. Put this photo together with the other photos in the series, and you start to understand the pain this woman is facing. You don't need to be told. You can see it.

The point? I guess I have a couple. Don't discount other mediums when telling your story and pay attention (yep, that one again) because everything and everyone has a tale to tell.

Inspiration: What Do You Miss If You Live With Your Eyes Shut Tight?

2011-12-13T11:47:00.002-05:00

Photo found here.

"In Washington DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After about four minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About four minutes later, the violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At six minutes, a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At ten minutes, a three-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At forty-five minutes: The musician played continuously. Only six people stopped and listened for a short while. About twenty gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After one hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

Photo found here.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

This experiment raised several questions:

In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
If so, do we stop to appreciate it?
Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…
How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?"

You can find the original article in the Washington Post here.

This is in some ways a follow up to my post The Beauty of the World You Live In. How much do we miss when we get so focused on the little things that (if we're completely honest with ourselves) don't matter at all in the grand scheme of the universe. This article is also, in some ways, a testament to the ignorance of the general populace to the beauty of classical music and their inability to recognize someone who has more right to celebrity status than Paris Hilton, the entire cast of Jersey Shore, and every "real housewife" combined. Writers especially (well, all artists, really) need to remember to slow down and take in the intricacies and incredible wonder of the world we've created. Don't let yourself get so caught up in the mundane that you fail to see something wonderful right before your eyes.

Pictures: Antigua

2011-12-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

As promised, here are some photos of my trip to Antigua! You can also see the whole album here.

Book Blogs: The Beginning Of The End?

2011-12-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

Photo found here.

The LA Times recently posted an article about a letter from William Morrow of HarperCollins to book bloggers. The company used to send out unrequested books to bloggers in the hopes of a review (apparently. I was never on that list, so I can't speak from personal experience). Now they plan on creating a request system which will limit bloggers' choices to three per month and will expect reviews of those books within one month of shipment.

I can see both sides of this equation. It must cost the company a lot of money to print and ship that many books and I'm sure there are more than a few bloggers who request a ton of books, but don't always review them--hell, maybe they don't even read them. I can also see the point of view of the bloggers who have been diligently toiling away on their sites for years (often without compensation of any kind except those free books they receive in the mail). Too bad this system HarperCollins is putting into place can't judge bloggers on a case by case basis and give the ones who deserve it more credit.

Does this move by HC spell the end of the golden times for book bloggers? Does it signal the end of book blogging entirely? If bloggers who review multiple books per week have to buy all those books, do you think they'll continue? A few will, those who would buy the books anyway whether they planned on reviewing them or not, but a lot will probably fall away if the flow of free copies ever stops. The advent of the digital age may be the saving grace as it costs companies almost nothing to send out ebook ARCs, but will they do this? The fear of piracy may prevent them from even contemplating it.

There's no easy answer, but I know how I hope this will turn out. It will be interesting to see the actual outcome.

Agents: A Day In The Life

2011-12-08T12:00:00.000-05:00

Photo found here.

This one shall be short, but interesting. Hopefully. :D

I have been trying to find an agent for a few years now. I query them and they read manuscripts and eventually sign people they like, but what exactly do agents do all day? Rachelle Gardner gave an overview of her days:

When I’m not handling crises and talking writers off ledges, here’s how I prioritize my daily work:

1. Contracts and Payments.
Fielding offers, negotiating deals, scrutinizing contracts, discussing clauses and terms with publishers, walking clients through their contracts, making sure the contract gets executed properly. Following up on advance and royalty payments, making sure publishers pay clients in a timely manner, examining royalty statements for accuracy.

2. Submitting projects to publishers.
Working with authors to prepare their proposals and manuscripts; preparing lists of editors to whom we’ll submit; getting projects out to publishers; following up appropriately.

3. All other client-related work.
Answering random questions; reading their latest work and offering feedback; coaching on marketing, promotion, career planning; brainstorming ideas for future projects; handling interaction with their publishers on everything from titles to book covers to extended deadlines and more; being a listening ear whenever necessary.

4. Finding new clients.
Reading incoming queries, reading requested partials and full manuscripts, sometimes offering feedback whether or not I’m saying yes to representation. It also includes proactively pursuing authors I’d like to represent.

Inspiration: The Beauty Of The World You Live In

2011-12-07T12:00:00.000-05:00

Like my recent post about keeping your eyes open, this one will hopefully remind you what there is to see in the world around you. Small town or large, on the water or landlocked, the world can show you some beautiful things if you open your eyes. Below are some pictures I took last weekend on Ft. Lauderdale beach, a spot I only truly appreciated after moving away for eight years.

Writing: The Mythos Of Word Counts

2011-12-06T12:00:00.000-05:00

Photo found here.

Especially during National Novel Writing Month, writers can get a tad preoccupied with word count. In fact, I've read posts by more than a handful of authors who refuse to have anything to do with NaNoWriMo because they believe it promotes the production of pointless fluff. I'm kind of in the middle on the subject. One of the reasons I've never participated in NaNo before is because the idea of writing 50,000 words just to write 50,000 words never appealed. I joined this year because I had a story to tell and I wanted the support of a community of writers all striving toward the same goal. Now I have a novel and I'm editing it, but word count is still something to consider.

My NaNo project is a YA paranormal. Will editors automatically discount a YA book over 100,000 words? How long is too long? I want my story told the way it needs to be told, but it won't be told at all if they never look at because of a few thousand words. Colleen Lindsay, a one-time agent, talks about word counts at length here. Read her post. It's highly informative, covering not only the rules, but the exceptions to those rules. It talks about editor's expectations and the exceptions sometimes made for bestselling and series authors.

Photo found here.

This information is useful. It's a good guideline and a good goal. Just be careful about letting it become the be-all end-all of your writing. Another post I found at a blog called The Writer's Alley talks about how an obsession with the literal word count can be a detriment to your work. If you're too stuck on the tally at the bottom of the screen, you'll end up cutting scenes that shouldn't go or adding scenes just to fill the "quota." Word count is an important factor, but your story is more important. If your book is not the best you can make it--with whatever word count is necessary--then how many words you have won't matter. Write the best story you can and then polish it until it shines. Whatever the word count, it will find a home eventually.

Books: Finding Your Title

2011-12-05T12:00:00.000-05:00

Before I start: a confession. I am on a plane right now headed out of the country on a business trip. I will not be back until Friday afternoon and therefore will probably not be able to approve comments or answer email until Saturday. This post and the others following it this week have all been pre-scheduled releases. Most revolve around articles or blog posts I discovered in the past few days. When I get back I may post some pictures if I end up with any good ones and I hope to write up a couple posts on editing, too. So, without further ado, I give you titles:

Photo found here.

Finding Your Title

Most of the time, I struggle hardest with titles. I put something in place as soon as I start writing a book, mostly to keep it distinct from my other projects on my computer. It's rare I like my first title. In fact, it's only happened once. But you need a title, especially once you start submitting the book to agents and editors or--more importantly--if you plan on self-publishing. How do you find one that works? There are a bunch of theories and methods, but Rachelle Gardner, an agent with WordServe Literary, talks about one I've heard recommended most.

Before I talk about the actual "how" of titling, Rachelle offers this piece of wisdom:

Let’s start by acknowledging a few things. The publisher is usually responsible for the final decision on title, and in the query stage, it’s not that important. In fact, some agents have said they don’t pay any attention at all to titles. But at some point, you’re going to want to think seriously about this. Your title is part of the overall impression you’re creating about your book. It can set a tone and create an expectation. Whether you’re pitching to an agent, or your agent is pitching to publishers, I think you want to have the strongest title possible. Think of it this way: the better your title is, the better your chance that the publisher will decide to use it, rather than changing it.

In other words, don't get so emotionally invested in your title you'll be in tears if the publisher decides they don't like it. Of course, you do always have the self-publishing route where you have control over everything. Even if you do self-publish, you'll still need a title. Now for the how!

What Rachelle recommends--and what some other authors and industry pros have also recommended--is creating a list of words that somehow relate to your book. Images, themes, locations, anything that pops into your head when you think about your story. Add to the list over a few days if you need to, then put it aside. Come back to it later and read through the words. What jumps out at you? Is there anything that would serve as a one-word title? If not, start writing up a new list this one pairing up words from the original list. Put this new list away and come back to it a few days later. See anything you like? Anything close if you tinkered with it?

The most important thing a title does is capture the spirit and style of a book. As often as you tell people not to judge a book by it's cover (or title), how else are you supposed to make a first impression? Especially if a book is sitting spine out on a shelf, the title is the first thing customers see. You don't get a second chance to make a first impression. Even if readers eventually give the book a second chance, in the back of their mind there will still be the first instinctual judgement. Take the time, do the research, and make their first judgement a good one.

Other blogs/articles on this topic:
Samuel D. Grey - Choosing Titles
Jeremy Wright - How to Pick a Book Title
Shimmer - Five Authors/Five Questions
Luc Reid - Luc's Desiderata of Titling
Caroline Baum - What it Takes to Title a Book
Elizabeth Richards - How to Write a Great Book Title
GoodReads - List of Great Book Titles

Inspiration: A Writer's Plea

2011-12-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

Full credit on this one goes to K. Marie Criddle's blog C'MERE and you can find the original post here.

Writing: More Writers On Writing

2011-12-03T12:00:00.000-05:00

Picture found here.

While fumbling through the internet, I found a post by Brian Klems who is the online editor for Writer's Digest. I receive the WD emails, so I read through a few articles every month. This one I have to share. Apparently they recently posted a list of the secrets of bestselling authors, but Brian pulled his favorite seven from the list of over 90 quotes. The names included in these seven are as broad as can be, but they all have at least one thing in common: they made it. In their own words, here's what they have to say about writing, success, inspiration, and criticism.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend! And don't forget to check out the original post here.

1.

“Oftentimes an originator of new language forms is called ‘pretentious’ by jealous talents. But it ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.”
—Jack Kerouac

2.

“[The writer] has to be the kind of man who turns the world upside down and says, lookit, it looks different, doesn’t it?”
—Morris West

3.

“I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.”
—Harper Lee

4.

“The only obligation any artist can have is to himself. His work means nothing, otherwise. It has no meaning.”
—Truman Capote

5.

“In truth, I never consider the audience for whom I’m writing. I just write what I want to write.”
—J.K. Rowling

6.

“Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.”
—Larry L. King

7.

“I think I succeeded as a writer because I did not come out of an English department. I used to write in the chemistry department. And I wrote some good stuff. If I had been in the English department, the prof would have looked at my short stories, congratulated me on my talent, and then showed me how Joyce or Hemingway handled the same elements of the short story. The prof would have placed me in competition with the greatest writers of all time, and that would have ended my writing career.”
—Kurt Vonnegut

If you have some free time, I recommend checking out the full list of 90 quotes. They definitely will inspire you—and they also serve as excellent Facebook status updates.

Inspiration: Where To Find It

2011-12-02T10:14:00.000-05:00

A lot of writers I've met have said that one of the questions they're asked most is where do you find inspiration. It's hard to give a real answer to this questions. The best one I've ever heard is PAY ATTENTION.

For example, recently one of my friends posted an article on Facebook that included these pictures:

Ooooh! Look at the pretty views!

AHHH! THE ZOMBIES ARE COMING!

Doesn't this building spark a bunch of ideas? Who would live in a place like this? What happened in their life to make them this paranoid? What are they afraid of now? Where did they get the money to build a concrete, high-tech bunker? What do the other people in the neighborhood think about this house and whoever lives there?

This is just one example, and not necessarily one that works for you, but it helps illustrate my point. Keep your eyes open and always ask questions. You never know when you'll find the picture/person/song/statement/quote/movie/color/scene/location/question/whatever that will ultimately become your next book.

And, no, my next book is not going to be about the zombie apocalypse. ;)

Writing: Writers Who Write About Writing

2011-12-01T11:54:00.001-05:00

This is Janice. And I want to steal her sweater. :)

Recently, I discovered Janice Hardy's blog. Janice is the author of the middle grade Healing Wars Trilogy, but her website is a treasure trove of useful information for aspiring authors. She covers everything and has even begun offering critiques on short sections (particularly opening sections) of reader's stories. I could probably write a couple thousand words about the information I've found here, but today I'm going to concentrate on one aspect: editing the first draft.

Why am I concentrating on this subject today? Because I'm in the process of doing this myself. My own method of editing has developed over the course of a few years and has fallen into a pattern that works rather well for me. First, I print my book, paperclip each chapter or section, and put the whole thing into an accordion folder. Next, I gather three writing utencils (a black pen, a bright colored pen [usually red, green, or orange], and a mechanical pencil) and a composition book (because they're cheap). Third, I start reading, watching for things I know I have problems with (like overusing "that," passive voice, telling instead of showing, etc.), but I do this only to make sure I'm paying attention to the details as I read. In her blog post about the difference between editing and revising, Janice makes this point:

You often hear edit and revise used interchangeably, but they really are two different things. Editing is the nitpicky, line by line tweaks that polish your text. Revision is more macro level, changing parts of the story. But how do you know when to use one over the other? I revise first, because that covers the big issues. The things that may take a lot of work. Once the story is unfolding how I want, then I edit, polishing it until it shines.

It's a good point, and one that will inevitably save you time in the polishing process. I am definitely guilty of doing editing during the first revision, but that's also because the first revision usually comes before I have gotten any feedback. In my head, everything is still working because no one has told me otherwise. Do I think my first draft is perfect? Heck, no. I just don't know yet how to fix the problems I'm sure are in there somewhere. That's where sites like Janice's come in handy.

Within her page on editing and revising, she goes through a list of many of the large and middling issues most first drafts face, things like structure, stakes, and story arcs. She gives you questions to ask yourself as you read through your novel to help pinpoint your major issues. And, trust me, they're good questions.

So, if you're like me and beginning the arduous process of revising your NaNoWriMo novel, check out Janice's blog. You may find some information that will get your draft from problematic to perfect.

Punctuation: The Exclamation Point!

2011-11-30T12:41:00.001-05:00

It's one of those rules I feel like I've always known: Don't use exclamation points in writing. I've always heard this... and I've pretty much always ignored it. With the obvious exception of technical, non-fiction, and research writing, I have not ever heard a valid argument for completely disregarding this useful punctuation mark. There is, of course, a line between useful and overused, but I am a definite fan of the exclamation point in fiction writing, emails, and of course, blogs.

Not too long ago, I discovered an article by Stuart Jeffries from The Guardian on this neglected (and sometimes maligned) punctuation mark. Jeffries looks at the perception and use of the exclamation point both in writing and the real world (did you know there's a town in Quebec called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!? I didn't before I read his article) and how this has changed, especially over the last century. For example, he quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald (author of books like The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise) who said, "Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes." True? Jeffries and I vote no. This would only be true if you use the exclamation point after a joke. Half of the times I use an exclamation point, what I'm saying isn't intended to be funny at all. Does this punctuation mark automatically convey humor? Apparently Mr. Fitzgerald thought so. But he wasn't the only one with a dim view of the subject.

"You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose," declared Elmore Leonard (author of 3:10 to Yuma and Hombre). Really? Since many books never reach the 100,000 word mark, that means you should find maybe 1 exclamation point in most books. Seems a little stingy to me. And a little silly. I agree that overuse can dull the effect of the punctuation, but by using this logic, characters in danger would only exclaim once. Someone shocked by the appearance of a bear may not be able to scream because those characters in danger earlier already used up the exclamation point quota. How much sense does that make?

Jeffries uses these and other opinions to help round out his article which is an amazingly thorough look at the subject, especially concerning the advent of the digital world and how exclamation points help convey emotions that just don't come through in emails. He quotes David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, authors of Send: The Essential guide to Email for Office and Home. In the article, Jeffries says:

They write, for instance, "'I'll see you at the conference' is a simple statement of fact. 'I'll see you at the conference!' lets your fellow conferee know that you're excited and pleased about the event ... 'Thanks!!!!'", they contend, "is way friendlier than 'Thanks'."

And he has a point. I know there have been times where I've misconstrued the tone of an email because of punctuation (or lack thereof). The same can be said of books. Tone is something the reader supplies in their heads and if you don't provide the right clues, your characters may not be interpreted the way you intended and a character who was supposed to be cheeky and amusing could become snarky and aggressive. Jeffries also points out that technology has always played a part in the structure, style, and usage of punctuation. He says,

It is important to realise that advances in technology (if that's what they are) affect how we write. And how we write includes how often we deploy the beloved gasper. Before the 1970s, few manual typewriters were equipped with an exclamation mark key. Instead, if you wanted to express your unbridled joy at - ooh, I don't know - the budding loveliness of an early spring morning and gild the lily of your purple prose with an upbeat startler, you would have to type a full stop, then back space, push the shift key and type an apostrophe. Which is enough to take the joie de vivre out of anyone's literary style. In the springs following the advent of the manual typewriter's exclamation marks, typed paeans to seasonal budding loveliness teemed with exclamation marks. Or at least I hypothesise that they did. I wasn't paying attention at the time.

The ultimate verdict? Don't throw it around, but don't ignore it, either. The exclamation point can be useful! I swear!

Writing: Exhaustion

2011-11-29T16:30:00.001-05:00

I have, in essence, run a creative marathon in the past few weeks and now I feel like this:

Photo found here.

As soon as I finished the draft, I started setting up for the edit process, but then I got hit with a wave of exhaustion that reminded me why I usually take a week or two off before switching from drafting to editing. Something to keep in mind for writers: time off in between processes is a good thing. At least, time off from that book. Doesn't mean you can't start working on something else.

Tonight, though, I'll be following that baby's example and crashing disgustingly early.

Writing: My Milestones

2011-11-28T07:49:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was phenomenal both for the family time I enjoyed and the writing milestones I hit.

First, on Saturday I broke 100,000 words! Yaaaaay!

This meant that, no matter what, I'd reached my personal writing goal for the year of writing 100,000 words. However, I hadn't quite reached The End. No, that's not right. I'd technically reached the end of the book, but there were still pieces missing, bits I had to go back and fill in because I hadn't been sure how the timeline would work or what to put there. Not many, but enough for me to hesitate calling it finished.

Well, I'm not hesitating any more.

It's here! I've hit The End!

Let the editing begin. :D

Holidays: In Celebration Of My Favorite Day Of The Year

2011-11-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

As I knew would happen, I couldn't choose just one winner. I had so many entries, and here are the ones I liked best for one reason or the other. These are posted in no particular order, comments I added after each are in blue, and my own Thanksgiving Thanks are at the bottom.

Photo found here.

May you have a happy, fulfilling, delicious, fun and family-filled Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for my son Nicholas, born 12 years ago right after Thanksgiving, two months premature and still the most beautiful 3.5 pounds of human being I've ever seen. His knees and elbows were baggy, like a Shar Pei, and he had a light coating of blond hair, but he also had the most remarkable stormy blue-grey eyes and such a confused look on his face, as if to say "Mom, what the heck?" My water had broken, but the doctors insisted on putting me in the "ante-natal unit" where they wanted me to somehow keep that child from being born for another month, but Nick was having none of that, and when I went to the bathroom, something slid out of me that felt like an umbillical cord, but when the nurse came in, she gasped and said "That's a FOOT!" and started running me down the hall to the OR, where literally 15 minutes later, they cut me open and pulled Nick out, rump first! The doctors said he was "Amazing" because he had no physical health problems, other than his lungs being a little small at first. Still, he grew fast, and now he's 5 foot 3 and weighs 135 pounds, and he is a happy, healthy, smart boy who loves to read, just like his mom.
What an amazing story!

I am more than thankful for the man I call my Dad. He chose to be my father, my friend and my rock. Amidst my biological parents divorce and the turbulence of my teenage years my Dad stepped up. I will be eternally grateful for all the support and guidance he has given me and the unconditionally love he has provided to me. I am thankful he is here to listen to me, here for me to hug and here to continue to tell me that I am special, worthy and good. He is what a parent should be and he is one by choice and not because he has to be. Thank you Dad for being you and loving me. I love you!!
I have a soft spot for amazing dads.

I'm thankful for all the wonderful blogs offering me chances to win this awesome book :)
Flattery gets you everywhere! ;)

This Thanksgiving I, along with my family, will assemble CARE packages for our troops who are overseas and away from the people that they love this holiday season. This is how we counteract the obsessive ""me"" attitude that tries to rear its ugly head as Christmas approaches. I find that we are all less greedy after we are reminded that our troops are wishing for things like warm socks and toilet paper.
And with the notes are all written, the custom's forms all filled out and the boxes sealed and ready to go I will make myself a cup of hot chocolate and giggle about the fact that I have once again purchased underwear for men I don't know.

I literally laughed out loud reading this one! Thank you for your work helping the troops and thank you for making me laugh.

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that my kids, who have been sick for two years with a chronic medical condition (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome - POTS) are getting their lives back & are back in school. I'm thankful to everyone in my community and all my friends who have helped out so much during these last couple of years and to Children's Hospital, Boston, for their fabulous rehab program!
Congratulations! News this good is definitely worth sharing!

I am thankful for my mother. Since the beginning, she has instilled in me a love of reading. Some of my first memories come from the walks we would take daily to the public library. I also want to thank her for finding the time during her busy day to read aloud to my sister and I before bed each night. With my mother, I learned to explore the universe with Madeline L'Engle, the world beyond the wardrobe with C.S. Lewis, and many many more.
My mother is one of my favorite people in the world

This Thanksgiving I give gratitude for the lessons. I have learned how to be a better friend - both to myself and to others. I have learned that NO is a complete sentence. I have learned that I can say YES to myself, too. My YES to myself includes curling up with a great book, a few cats, and a hot cup of tea.... And saying NO when the phone rings. Happy National Novel Month - and Thanks.
My favorite part of this one: I have learned that NO is a complete sentence. Sometimes I think I still need to work on that.

I am thankful for my son, who brightens each and every day
I am thankful for my job, which provides me with my pay
I am thankful for my friends, who support me in all that I do
I am thankful that I am a reader, because reading gets me through
I am thankful for today, because tomorrow is not promised
I would be thankful if I won this contest... because Jacqueline Carey is a writing GODDESS

If this gets posted I would like to note that Jacqueline is so very talented and out of the thousands of books I have ever read, the Kushiel Saga is my all time favorite, and the only series I have ever read twice!
She wrote this in verse! Just for that this gets posted. :D

What I am most thankful for is the change to have Tuesday through Sunday off from school so that I may get some homework finished. :) I would love to be able to visit my *lovely, awesome* family in Florida, but will not be able to until the Christmas time. I do not miss the father figure getting frustrated at the women folk because they did not eat the meat substance, but miss the family dinners. I will thoroughly enjoy the visiting that will commence when I get to come down in December.
I’m sure your family will be very happy to see you!

This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for authors. For giving us hundreds (thousands, millions) of new worlds and people to explore and get to know. For giving us an escape when our real life gets too stressful. For making us think, believe, and hope. For teaching us lessons about ourselves and about life. For challenging us. For believing in us. And most of all, for awesome sex scenes ^_^

ME TOO!

My life has never gone according to plan. When I pictured myself at this age ten years ago, the life I had in mind was very different from the one I'm living now. What I have learned in the past three years, though, is how to be grateful for everything I have, whether it's what I thought I wanted or not. I am grateful for my mother who has never let me down, even though I've sometimes failed her. I am grateful for my middle sister who has always been one of my best friends and who I miss dearly because she lives too far away. I am grateful that moving home earlier this year has allowed me to become closer to my youngest sister who is no longer an alien sent to torment her elder siblings, but an actual human being! I am grateful for my job--which I lucked in to--for putting me on the first step in an actual career path. I am grateful for friends who take the time out of their insanely busy schedules to read my rough drafts, ask a million questions, and spend hours they could be sleeping looking up words in dead languages because they think it might help me. I am also grateful for friends who drop everything at a moments notice to spend an evening with me.I am grateful for successful surgeries, book fairs, Microsoft Word, air-conditioning, good movies, awesome jewelry, authors who give advice, Broadway shows, new desks, NYC, and the color blue. I am also grateful for NaNoWriMo, inspiration, baby name books, amazing music, cork boards, digital cameras, and Flickr. Most of all, I am grateful for the chance to do what I love and the hope that I'll be able to keep doing it for a very long time.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I'll be back on Monday. Enjoy the weekend and make sure you spend it with someone you love.

Giveaway: Congratulations!

2011-11-23T20:57:00.001-05:00

Photo found here.

Congratulations to Tamar who has just won a signed copy of Saints Astray by Jacqueline Carey! Check your email, Tamar and email me before midnight eastern time on Friday November 23rd to claim your prize!

Giveaway: Thank you!

2011-11-23T11:33:00.001-05:00

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway for Jacqueline Carey's Saints Astray! I have the entries and will be drawing the winner tonight. Tomorrow morning, the winner(s) of my Thanksgiving essay contest will also be posted.

In the meantime, here's a random comic for your amusement!

This is why the Narnia would never have been written if C.S. Lewis had been a computer geek. ;)

MBFI: Sunday, November 20, 2011

2011-11-22T13:04:00.000-05:00

I just really like the ceiling of the courtyard in building 1 of the MDC campus. The geometry of it is very pretty.

Another day, another two hours in the car, but still totally worth it. I'd already walked most of the fair on Saturday, so I planned ahead and plotted a route from conference to conference. There was another impressive array of authors on the docket and my day ran the gamut from memoirs and literary fiction to children's books young adult.

Helen Mitsios (seated) and her friend Cyn who stood in for Helen's mother

I started out in building 3 where I waited for a reading by Helen Mitsios, co-author of Waltzing with the Enemy, a memoir by herself and her mother, a holocaust survivor. Her mother, unfortunately, was not there as she had passed away earlier this year. For anyone interested in World War II or the Holocaust, this book is a powerful look not only at what it took to survive those horrifying years, but the effect that fear had on the next generation of Jews like Helen. Helen's mother raised her as a Greek Orthodox and although she never personally abandoned her faith, it became a secret she held onto until the last years of her life.

Hillary Jordan, Jaimy Gordon, and Tea Obreht

Because of the cancellation of another YA event, I ended up in a reading and question session by three award-winning literary authors: Hillary Jordan, Jaimy Gordon, and Tea Obreht. Each read a selection from their books and while each possessed a intriguing descriptive quality, I found myself most drawn to Hillary Jordan's When She Woke, an almost sci-fi book that is a modernization of the Scarlet Letter. In When She Woke, criminals are no longer jailed, they are chromed, their skin dyed according to the nature of their crimes. The main character wakes up in the beginning of the story and her skin has been dyed red, the same red as freshly shed blood, as punishment for undergoing an illegal abortion. When she refuses to name the father of the child or any of the people who helped her obtain the abortion, she is sentenced to be a "Red" for sixteen years. I've always disliked the scarlet letter, but Jordan's retelling of the story sounds fascinating.

It's Jon Scieszka!! :D The picture is bad, but the light above his head ruined it...

I had a block of time and nothing scheduled, so when I heard someone recommend sitting in on Jon Scieszka's talk because he was absolutely hilarious, I thought, "Sure. Why not?" Only after I'd already sat down did I realize that this is the genius behind The Stinky Cheese Man (which, apparently is called The Little Man of Cheese in France) and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs (which, in Denmark, is called The Sugar is Empty... ?)!! I adored those books in elementary school! They are also on the shortlist of books that I loved at a young age and can actually still go back to, read, and enjoy. After his talk I went up to him and said, "This is probably going to be both good and bad to hear, but I loved your books in elementary school." He laughs and says, "I love hearing that!" But then he blinks and realizes how old I am and says, "Ahh. Yep, I see the bad." Jon has a fantastic sense of humor and had the whole audience (who ranged in age from his target reading group of 1st-4th graders all the way up through middle-aged parents) in fits of laughter. I was very happy that I wandered into his room and wished that I still had my old copies of his books so I could have gotten them signed.

Jennifer Knight, Jessica Martinez, and Danielle Joseph

My requisite YA event of the afternoon was a panel of two debut authors (Jennifer Knight and Jessica Martinez) and Danielle Joseph who is touring to promote her third book, Pure Red. They all did readings as well as answering questions, and I definitely want to read Jessica's book Virtuosity. It's the story of a violin phenom who is approaching the biggest, most important competition of her career. She's addicted to anti-anxiety medication which is the only way she can perform, but taking away the anxiety has also taken away any pleasure she has being on stage or pulling music from her violin (which is worth over a million dollars). As the competition looms closer, she begins falling for the boy who is wrong for her in almost every way, but is also her most dangerous competitor. The prologue absolutely pulled me in and I think I shall be downloading this to read while I'm taking a break between edits of Sing, Sweet. To top off the draw, Jessica is a violist herself and performed a small selection from her character's competition concerto. I missed the first few seconds of it, but most of the impromptu performance is recorded for posterity and you can watch it at the bottom of the post. :)

This costume is so incredible!

That event (and a fast growing headache) brought my day to a close, but I am so happy I was able to attend. I met some great authors (and gathered further proof for my theory that authors are some of the best people on the planet) and heard from those who have succeeded the best advice they could offer. Check the internet for local bookfairs and do yourself a favor if you're an author or a reader: GO!

And now, please enjoy Jessica Martinez's beautiful performance of a Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto:

MBFI: Saturday, November 19, 2011

2011-11-21T13:14:00.000-05:00

I started to write this as one long post, but then I looked at the pictures I wanted to share and what I had to say about the whole event and realized this was way too much for one post. So there shall be two, one for each day of major goings on at the Miami Book Fair International (MBFI).

Saturday turned out to be beautiful weather-wise which was a blessing considering that it rained buckets on Friday most of the day. The wind was pretty strong, but that was nice when you're spending half the day walking from stall to stall in the South Florida sun.

I arrived around eleven and wandered the booths that lined the streets for the next hour. It was an interesting mix of new and used bookstores, independent presses, self-published authors, and writers services and organizations. Some I'd never heard of, others I recognized, but either way it was a fascinating look at the local writing landscape and I picked up some great books I never would have discovered otherwise as part of my research for Sing, Sweet Nightingale. It's going to take me a while to read them all, but I think they'll have some great information!

Colleen Houck, Debbie Viguie, Nancy Holder, and Sarah Dessen

At noon I headed toward building 1 where they held a fabulous panel of YA authors (picture from the discussion at right). The panel included paranormal/fantasy authors Colleen Houck, Debbie Viguie, and Nancy Holder as well as contemporary author Sarah Dessen. They were all fabulously kind and I wish I owned physical copies of Nancy and Debbie's books (they co-write a bunch of different series) so they could have signed them! Alas, the only book I had was an ARC (advance release copy) of Lock & Key by Sarah Dessen. Now it's a signed ARC! :D

Clockwise from top: Colleen Houck, Me, Sarah Dessen, Nancy Holder, Debbie Viguie

These incredibly talented and incredibly kind authors not only gave a great presentation, they answered a lot of questions including my request for advice on building a platform relevant to the YA industry. Nancy and Debbie were especially helpful and I chatted with them for at least thirty minutes before I felt guilty for taking up so much of their time. If you ever get the chance to meet any of these authors, GO! They're awesome.

Tasha Alexander, Ellen Hopkins, and Sunny Chen

After leaving building 1, I crossed campus to building 3 where another panel was being held. This one consisted of romance authors Tasha Alexander, Ellen Hopkins (also the bestselling author of YA books in verse like Crank), and Sunny Chen (who, if I remember correctly, is usually just listed as Sunny on her books). They spoke about their writing process--which is very different for each of these authors as each one writes in a very distinct style from the others on the panel--and about the perseverance is takes to make it in the publishing industry.

Errol Lewis, Pete Hamill, Mike Barnicle, and John Avlon

In one particular room, The Chapman Room for those of you who care, they held large, ticketed events. The tickets were free, but these were events they expected to draw a large crowd. For example, this is where they held the Christopher Paolini event last week. When I booked my tickets, I saw an event called Deadline Artists. I didn't recognize any of the names, but the title intrigued me, so I registered for a ticket and attended the event. Turns out Deadline Artists is a collection of newspaper columns dating back to the early 1900s, the best of the best in literary journalism. Errol Lewis and John Avalon put the collection together while Pete Hamill and Mike Barnicle were contributors. Honestly, I almost didn't stay once I realize what the presentation was about (I don't read the newspaper and don't follow politics, so I thought ugh. An hour listening to them talk about politics?). I am so glad I stayed. The conversation itself was fascinating, but it was worth the whole trip just to hear Pete Hamill read one of the columns included in the collection. Hamill was IN THE ROOM when Robert F. Kennedy was shot. He wrote a column about the event as he witnessed it and the beauty, horror, and power in his words is indescribable. Reading them would have been impactful, but for the first time I really understood the value of a reading because when he read his own words, you were there. Absolutely astounding. I recommend the collection to anyone with an interest in journalism or narrative non-fiction.

In addition to all the book-related events over the weekend, the Fair this year also highlighted the culture and art of China. Throughout the day various performers and musicians showed off their skills, but one of the most randomly amazing things I've ever seen is this juggling ballerina pictured at left. I mean, I've done pointe and I've tried juggling. On their own, their already hard-to-master skills. Put them together successfully and I have to bow down before your obvious physical prowess and eye-hand coordination. So cool!!

So ended my first day of the fair, but Sunday was just as exciting! Check back tomorrow for a recap and photos of Sunday!

Authors: Miami Book Fair

2011-11-19T20:37:00.001-05:00

Such a wonderful day! I'll do a full recap later, but I attended the Miami International Book Fair today and I am so glad I did! I got to meet Sarah Dessen, Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie (andI actually got to speak to both Nancy and Debbie for a while and they are amazing!), Collen Houck, Ellen Hopkins, Sunny Chen, Tasha Alexander, and a panel of newspaper columnists who were incredibly fascinating to listen to (Mike Barnicle, Errol Louis, Pete Hamill, and John Avalon). I hope tomorrow will be just as fantastic! Totally worth the two hours in the car to get there and back! :D

NaNoWriMo: Back On The Horse

2011-11-17T16:17:00.001-05:00

After my consuming worries yesterday morning, I'm happy to report that I'm back on the horse!

Photo found here. Poor horse!

In fact, I think I may be stronger for taking a day off. So, in that vein, last night I caught up on missed episodes of Once Upon a Time (such an awesome show!! :D) instead of chaining myself to my computer until it was time for me to collapse into bed. I've been buried in this novel so deep I forgot that I need breathing space every so often, time for my creative batteries to recharge. I'll have more of that this weekend as I will be attending the Miami International Book Fair--even if it decides to rain, which it will if the sky right now is any indication. Either each night or at the end of the weekend, I'll post updates of interesting things I see or books I find that I've never heard of before but want to read. I'm excited! It's off to work now so I can leave early and go spend my time in a much more amusing fashion! :D

Books: Introducing Transcendent

2011-11-17T13:19:00.001-05:00

It's here! And it's absolutely stunning! No official release date yet, but as soon as I know, I'll pass the information along. I'm so excited for all my friends! Good luck guys! Your gorgeous cover is definitely a great start to what I know will be a fabulous launch!

Writing: Hitting The Wall

2011-11-17T07:38:00.001-05:00

Photo found here.

Since October 31st, I've been moving forward in this draft at bullet-train speed. Some days my word count jumped by almost 10,000. That is unheard of for me! Most days my I averaged closer to 3,500, but even that is way above my normal productivity range.

And then yesterday I wrote about 650...

And, now, I'm worried I might end up like that guy...
<-----

Have I hit the wall? Have I pushed myself too hard the last few weeks? Do I need time to recharge? Or was yesterday just a day where a hundred other things were going on?

Even having hit this point before, I can't yet tell if I've reached it again.

Then again, I did fall asleep before 9:00 PM last night. So maybe I was just exhausted.

What do you guys do when you stall on a story? And tricks? I'm hoping a LONG sleep will help me get back into the flow.

Readers: Question Everything

2011-11-16T10:36:00.001-05:00

Photo found here.

I've always know the value of a reader who asks questions, but for a few years I've been without one. A good reader will find all those plot holes you didn't know were there. A good reader will question all your leaps of logic and force you to back them up. A good reader will wonder why and how and what and who and when. And then once you answer those questions, they'll come up with new ones.

A friend of mine just read the short story versions of Sing and afterward emailed me a long list of questions, notes, and what she calls loves. Answering her questions not only helped her understand the story better, it helped me understand the story better. Someone from the outside who doesn't have all the answers will think of questions that never even occurred to you. They'll dig into the dark corners you forgot to dust and find that key you've been looking for. They'll bring up ideas that solve problems you haven't run into yet. And they can be a wonderful way to get an honest reaction to new plots, characters, and themes.

A good reader is a curious reader, and a curious reader is more precious than diamonds.

Writing: The Process

2011-11-15T09:35:00.000-05:00

Writing is work. Anyone who says otherwise is either lying or selling something.

That being said, how do you get from concept to finished first draft? I'm not talking about polished, ready to publish, amazingly perfect writing, just a first draft that includes a beginning, middle, and end as well as all the important elements of a good novel. Even Aristotle said so. :)

This is a question almost every author gets. I heard it asked during the event with Christopher Paolini and it's been on my mind recently, hence the post. Thus far, for every book I've started or finished, my process has been different. Some ideas come to be with the larger story arc already in place and all I have to do is fill in the details. Others appear only as an image or scene and I have to go back through that scene with a million questions to try to see where these characters have come from and where they're going. Sometimes I outline, sometimes I don't. Maybe one day I'll have a system that I employ for every book, but I find that doubtful. It kind of feels as likely as saying I'm going to follow the same routine every day for the rest of my life. Of course I'm not. No one is. Every day is different just like every book is different.

Sing, Sweet Nightingale, for example, started life as a short story. It then became two short stories. Now, it's becoming a novel. Later, it might become a series. For this particular story, I never had an outline. I have notes now and I'm doing a lot of research into different things I will be using in the novel, but my short story versions are serving as my outline. I've found this to be SO INCREDIBLY USEFUL. And it's probably going to be as close to a "process" as I get if I manage to repeat this life-cycle with the sequel. Even if I don't repeat this system, it's not the important part.

The important part is sitting down and writing, refusing to let procrastination and over-planning keeping you from the business of telling the story you need to tell. As long as you do that, does HOW you get there really matter?

What about you? Does anyone have a tried and tested system that gets them through that first draft with their sanity still intact?

Movies: The Hunger Games

2011-11-14T14:02:00.001-05:00

I do not often get excited about books being made into movies. Most of the time, they cut out too much and everything just feels... lacking. However....

OMG THE HUNGER GAMES!!!!

Photo found here.

The trailer came out this morning and I just watched it for the first time. I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIE! It looks astounding. The cast seems perfect. From everything I've read, they know the kind of audience they're working with and have tried to stay true to the book as much as possible. If this trailer is any indication, they are on the right track! I'll be there for the midnight release. Will you?

Authors: Christopher Paolini

2011-11-14T10:04:00.000-05:00

It is slightly upsetting that so many really incredible author tours skip out on South Florida. Christopher Paolini is not one of those authors. He kicked off the Miami International Book Fair with a talk/Q+A session/book signing yesterday afternoon and he is, in a word, awesome.

He spoke about writing Eragon (including the incredible boredom that led to him first digging a hole eight feet in diameter, eight feet deep, covered by an old satellite dish and connected to a Viking-style mead hall by tunnel) and also how different (and bad) the first draft of Eragon was--most notably, the fact that Eragon wasn't named Eragon, but Kevin. Weird. He also spoke about getting slaughtered in a Jedi video game (the name escapes me but I remember he stressed it was number 2) by an online gamer named Eragon. He did brief readings from each of the books in the series (very brief. I think he read the first two sentences of Eragon), answered a lot of really well-thought out questions (unless the question involved Angela), mentioned the possibility of other books set in Eragon's world (but cautioned that they would not show up for a long time), and then started signing a LOT of books. His hand had to be cramping like crazy by the end of the night! And he'd just flown in this morning, so he must have already been exhausted.

I may seem overly excited by this event, but authors are my rock stars. In fact, they're better than rock stars because they're usually nicer, easier to talk to, intelligent (no, I'm not saying rock stars are dumb), funny (I'm not saying they're dull either), and some of the best people in the world. Christopher Paolini is no exception. I purposefully attempted to be the last person in line (I say attempted because a couple came in late, took the spot, and then used the fact that they were on their honeymoon to keep it... How could I insist after that?). When I got to speak to him I asked him about his actual publishing experience and what advice he would offer authors who are still trying to figure out which side of the fence to jump onto. He tried valiantly to answer a question that I think has no solution, but essentially his advice came down to this: Write the best book you can, know who your audience is, and promote it as best you can because all truly exceptional books will find a home.

Christopher is very nice (he signed up to four books PER PERSON and spent a few seconds talking to everyone), incredibly down to earth, and a Trekkie! So many bonus cool points for that revelation. :) It was also really great meeting someone who is right around my age and successfully doing what I would like to be doing with my life. Very inspiring! There are still a few stops left on his tour, so I highly recommend attending if you're anywhere nearby. Well worth driving a few hours for!

NaNoWriMo: I'm Halfway There!

2011-11-13T09:33:00.001-05:00

Having never attempted NaNo before, I've never realized how consuming it is. Especially when you set yourself a goal that is double the normal NaNo goal. HOWEVER,

I AM OFFICIALLY PAST THE HALFWAY MARK! And, to make this victory even sweeter, I hit this very crucial landmark before the official halfway point of the competition. This is such an important occasion for me that it is now time for a happy dance:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone! And don't forget to enter my giveaway contest!!

Random: If They Say So...

2011-11-11T10:05:00.001-05:00

It has been decided. If my everyone in my office was the cast in the Munsters, I'd be the blonde girl. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a compliment or not. O.o?

Regardless of the doubtful compliment of the statement, I laughed for a solid five minutes when they told me this. I think they think I'm normal! :D

Giveaway: Jacqueline Carey's Saints Astray

2011-11-10T10:39:00.000-05:00

This is probably my favorite month of the year, and for more than one reason. Not only is it the beginning of the best time of year to be in South Florida, but it contains my hands-down favorite holiday and celebrates my favorite way to pass the time (NaNoWriMo, anyone?). In honor of all of this, I am hosting a two-prong contest, part of which is courtesy of New York Times bestselling fantasy author Jacqueline Carey.

In case you haven't heard of Jacqueline Carey, here is a little bit about her from her website:

Jacqueline Carey is the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Kushiel's Legacy series of historical fantasy novels and The Sundering epic fantasy duology.

An avid reader, Jacqueline began writing fiction as a hobby in high school. After receiving B.A. degrees in psychology and English literature from Lake Forest College, she took part in a work exchange program and spent six months working in a bookstore in London. While living abroad, the desire to write professionally emerged as a driving passion. Upon returning she embarked in earnest on a writing career, which came to fruition a decade later. During this time she worked at the art center of an area college, gaining a strong background in the visual arts. Jacqueline enjoys doing research on a wide variety of arcane topics, and an affinity for travel has taken her from Finland to Egypt to date.

She currently lives in west Michigan, where she is a member of the oldest Mardi Gras krewe in the state. Although often asked by inquiring fans, she does not, in fact, have any tattoos.

On a personal note, Jacqueline Carey is not only one of my favorite authors, but a personal writing hero. I want to be like her when I grow up.

So, what am I giving away and how do you get it? Because of how awesome this month is, there are two parts to this contest. First, thanks to Jacqueline's genius, I am raffling one SIGNED copy of her newest book, Saints Astray, the sequel to her fabulous Santa Olivia.

Fellow orphans, amateur vigilantes, and members of the Santitos, Loup Garron-the fugitive daughter of a genetically engineered "wolf man"-and Pilar Ecchevarria grew up in the military zone of Outpost 12, formerly known as Santa Olivia. But now they're free, and they want to help the rest of the Santitos escape. During a series of escapades, they discover that Miguel, Loup's former sparring partner and reprobate surrogate brother, has escaped from Outpost 12 and is testifying on behalf of its forgotten citizens-at least until he disappears from protective custody. Honor drives Loup to rescue Miguel, even though entering the U.S could mean losing her liberty. Pilar vows to help her.

It will take a daring and absurd caper to extricate Miguel from the mess he's created but Loup is prepared to risk everything... and this time she has help.

Ahh! So exciting! I can't wait to read it. :D

Part two of the contest involves an ode to Thanksgiving. Within the contest entry form below is a space for you to enter a brief paragraph telling me what you're thankful for--even if it's just book giveaways hosted on blogs. The best, funniest, most moving, poetic, wonderful paragraph(s) will be posted on my site on Thanksgiving morning.

For this reason, the contest will end at midnight (eastern standard time) on November 22nd. Spread the word and earn extra entries in the random drawing! If you have any questions, leave them in the comments section and even if you don't win, I highly recommend ALL of Jacqueline Carey's books, especially the Kushiel Saga (currently contained in three completed trilogies, but WARNING--these books may not be appropriate for children under 13. Parental guidance is suggested).

So, fill out the form below to enter! And please know that I promise I will not keep any of your information on file longer than it takes to notify the winners and close down the Google doc.

CONTEST CLOSED! THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED! WINNERS WILL BE POSTED IN A NEW POST TOMORROW MORNING!

Writing: Does It Ever Get To You?

2011-11-10T08:17:00.003-05:00

Photo found here.

Have you ever gotten so deep into your writing that it starts to get to you? I feel like my characters are starting to stalk me while I sleep.

This morning, for example, I jerk awake at 6:30 am (a full hour earlier than I need to be awake) convinced someone is knocking on my window. No one was there, of course.

Still, even though I don't remember my dreams in detail (I never do), I feel as though I've spent the last few nights living in the world I've created. It's hard to explain why without giving things away, but let's just say it's starting to creep me out just a little. At the same time, It's really awesome. :D

Books: Miami International Book Fair

2011-11-09T16:02:00.003-05:00

Bought my tickets this morning for the Miami International Book Fair! I am very excited about this! Can't wait to go! I'm already signed up to attend a couple of events including An Evening With Christopher Paolini. :D

As surprising as it is, I've never been to a big book fair like this, so the appeal for me is even greater because everything will be new! I've heard you can score tons of SWAG and some ARCs from different publishers trying to promote their new books, so I plan on attending with a messenger bag to carry everything. Tickets are cheap, so if you're in the area, attend! It should be a blast!

News: Sing, Sweet Nightingale

2011-11-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

So, it's officially official. But it's also a long story, so I'm going to go back to the beginning.

After I wrote Sing, Sweet Nightingale, I wanted to get to know my second main character better. This sparked an idea to write some of the scenes in Sing from his perspective. Like most of my projects, this turned into something a lot longer than I'd anticipated--longer than Sing, even--but I liked it a lot and it allowed me to get a much better understanding of his character and his background.

When the editing was about to start for Sing, I sent the editor this second story (which I'd titled The Damsel in Distress) just as a source of extra information about the world I'd created. "There is a lot of extra background information in here," I told her. "If you feel any of it should be included in Sing to help round out the story or explain some of the idiosyncrises of the universe, please let me know." So she read it and then sent me an email that essentially said this: I think you should turn these two stories into a novel.

A small part of me was kind of sad to hear that because I'd been SO proud of myself for finally writing something SHORT! However, this didn't last long. The novel extension is an idea that had actually already passed through my head. Since I'd been trying to publish it in short story form at the time, I didn't give the fleeting idea much thought. With this push however, I started to seriously consider the possibility of heading back to the drawing board:

I started messing around with ideas and, not surprisingly, ended up with more than I'd bargained for. In fact, I have a solid new beginning for the extended version of Sing (I like the title, so I'm keeping it for the novel). For those of you who have read the past few posts, this is the NaNo project I've been pumping through so forcefully. It's kind of taken on a life of it's own and therefore taken over my life. I love it when this happens!

The plus side of all this is that I'm working on something that I really think could be great. The downside is I'm back where I started from on the whole publication process. Have to get the draft done and edited and then resubmit to a few places. Well, no one ever claimed becoming a writer was an easy road to walk. Here's to hoping that inspiration + perseverance (+ a little good luck) = publication

Musings: Pomegranates Are Messy

2011-11-08T12:00:00.000-05:00

I vote that pomegranates offically be named the messiest fruit to eat. I tried recently because it's been years and I forgot what a chore it is. This is what the pomegranate looked like before:

And after:

Eating this fruit requires a knife, the use of your nails, and about half a roll of paper towels. And I STILL ended up with incredibly sticky fingers and a tupperware full of scraps.

The question that popped into my head while eating this (and thus prompting this post) is how in the world did pomegranate seeds cause Persephone's downfall?! I really hope that she was offered just the seeds because if she took the time to peel and eat this thing and still blamed it on Hades, then she's a liar. The process of peeling open one of these deceptively pretty fruits involves too much work and time. If she had to do it herself, she had plenty of chances to realize, "Hey, maybe I shouldn't eat this if I ever want to go back to my mom."

(Okay, confession: The before and after photos are NOT the same pomegranate as the whole questioning process didn't start until I was halfway done with the stupid but delicious thing and therefor it didn't occur to me to take a picture until it was far too late. Still, it looks close enough ;) )

... And, yes, these are the kind of weird random thoughts that run through my head.

Time and Space: My New Setup

2011-11-07T10:18:00.000-05:00

I've been spending more and more time at my desk working on one project or another. Because of this, I decided it was past time to upgrade from the desk I've had since I was about twelve. It worked well enough then, but it was not built with a computer in mind and just... Yeah. It was way past due. So I went shopping and now have a whole new setup! This includes a new desk chair (OMG YAY! I can't even explain how uncomfortable my last one was.) I had to rearrange a lot because the many drawers of my old desk are definitely lacking in my new one, but otherwise I'm very happy with the result:

Update: Daylight Savings Sucks

2011-11-06T09:05:00.001-05:00

Years ago the government apparently tried to help farmers by giving them more daylight (is it only me that thinks someone in Congress just wanted to pretend they were magical?). Now, twice a year, all of our clocks, watches, cell phones, computers, other assorted handheld devices all end up arguing over what time it is. When I woke up this morning I found myself stuck somewhere in a two hour gap. None of the four devices in my room that tell me the time agreed with any of the others. My cell tells me it's 8:01 right now, my clock tells me it's 10:00, my computer says 9:01 and my iPad says 8:45. WTH? And what use is daylight savings these days? NONE! Not even to those farmers for whom the whole thing started. A few years ago the government changed the dates of daylight savings, but couldn't they have saved us all the hassle and done away with it entirely? Can't Florida at least do away with it? Come on, Florida! Be smart for once!

Anyway... That's my rant for the day. Enjoy your extra hour (or two...?). I shall be locked into the new desk and desk chair I bought yesterday (YAY!) and writing from dawn to dusk tonight (have to make up for the entire afternoon I spent putting together my new desk and desk chair...). Good luck, if you're doing the same.

TV: So Long, Andy Rooney

2011-11-05T09:26:00.003-04:00

Photo found here.

Andy Rooney, satirist, journalist, and newsman died last night at the age of 92. He had been a member of the 60 Minutes team for over thirty years and his segments at the end of the show were always the highlight of the episodes for me. My father and I watched 60 Minutes every Sunday when I was a child and I distinctly remember feeling disappointed every time Andy Rooney wasn't on a particular week. At that age, his humor often went over my head as his dry wit occupied an intellectual level few children reach (not even avaricious readers like me). I don't think there was anything Rooney wouldn't comment on and the subjects I remember covered everything from art to used cars. He was a great personality on TV and the whole news segment will feel his loss. His last appearance, his official retirement from 60 Minutes was only a month ago.

So long, Andy Rooney. I for one will miss you.

For those of you who have never seen him, watch the clips below and if you like it, go YouTube hunting. There are a lot more where these came from.

Writing: I'm On a Roll!

2011-11-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

Photo found here.

Seriously! I'm very pleased with myself. I've managed to keep up some of the momentum yesterday even though I spent most of the day at work and therefore away from my novel. I'm going to be working again all day today, unfortunately (that's usually what happens when you have a 9-5 job), although I hope to meet up with some other NaNo-ers tonight and see what tips we can share. I think that, if nothing else, NaNo is a good networking tool for writers in a certain area to find each other and create a support system. I kind of like that.

Look to see the updated word count before I do go sleep tonight. :)

Writing: Staying Motivated

2011-11-03T13:21:00.002-04:00

Visit Nathan's Blog here.

Sometimes, it's not writers block and it's not lack of time, it's fatigue that stops people from writing. Nathan Bransford (pictured left) is an agent turned kidlit author who recently posted a great article on staying motivated. Possibly posted now to coincide with the beginning of NaNo, possibly not. Either way, it's worth a read.

Writing: My NaNoWriMo Novel

2011-11-03T08:06:00.000-04:00

Remember that NaNoWriMo novel I mentioned yesterday? I think my participation is becoming more compulsory because I officially have 10,094 words. Right now, looking at that total (the sum of only two days of work), I kind of feel like this guy:

At the same time, I shouldn't be quite so shocked. I know by now how my writing happens: in strange, unpredictable bursts fueled by a random idea or inspired moment. If that jolt of inspiration stays with me, I can shoot through a novel like a bullet train. If I only envision a particular scene, the going gets a lot tougher. This process is why part of me dreads working under contract and deadline. The writing I don't do while inspired, the stuff I plug onto the keyboard just to get a word count, usually sucks.

Luckily, in this particular case, I have practically the entire book figure out already. Not just figured out, but planned, investigated, questioned, fleshed out, and outlined (in a sense). Although I do need to grow the story, change certain details and certain reasonings that won't work in this new format, the bulk of the story is there, ready for me to write. What does this mean for you? That I'll probably be posting about my progress a lot this month and won't post about any of the books I planned to read and review until December. Maybe even January. I'm considering posting a word count meter on the sidebar, but I have to find one first.

All in all, this much progress so fast is extremely exciting and a little nerve wrecking. Can I keep this pace up through the whole book? I really hope so. I guess we'll see, though, won't we?

Edited to add: Found a really great, simple meter! Progress is now being monitored on the sidebar.

Writing: NaNoWriMo

2011-11-02T12:00:00.000-04:00

I just realized that I may inadvertently be participating in National Novel Writing Month...

How does something like participation in a huge, nationally recognized, and somewhat frantic race to the novel-length finish line happen inadvertently? When the beginning of the program just happens to coincide with the presentation of a dilemma that involves finishing a novel in a rather short amount of time.

I've never signed up for NaNoWriMo before (and I don't think I'm going to actually sign up now either), but the timing of this whole thing seemed extraordinarily coincidental. Fortuitous, maybe? I'm hoping so.

I know this is all rather vague, but as nothing is final yet one way or the other I don't want to mention something that might not happen. Still, it was such an odd coincidence I couldn't help sharing.

Plot: Figuring Out The Middle Bits

2011-11-01T12:00:00.000-04:00

Photo found here.

I am just over 56,000 words through my novel My Own Prince Charming, but unlike the last time I hit this mark in a project, I'm not fighting my way word by word to the end. I have the end. And I like it. I have the first 8 chapters. I like those, too. It's that whole middle section that's giving me trouble this time.

The story I'm building is complex and a little creepy and needs a lot of hints, subplots, and foreshadowing. Right now I'm not able to decide what scenes and dialogue are best to get my characters from where they are to where they end up. It's a struggle writers have to face in every book they're ever going to write and it's going to be harder for some stories (and some authors) than others. How do you overcome it? Well, you just have to .... Honestly, I have no clue. Random scenes have popped into my head periodically through the last few months and I've written them as they've hit, but I haven't made a significant dent in the progress in quite a while. The worst bit is not really being sure how much more I need. Am I three or four chapters from being done or do I need eight or nine chapters worth of story to really flesh everything out? Hopefully I'll find some way to figure this all out. If/when I do, I'll come back and let you know.

Do you have any ideas?

Update: Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T00:01:00.000-04:00

Photo found here. Probably originally stolen from HGTV, though...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

May your ghouls be frightening, your candy plentiful and sickeningly delicious, and your costume exactly the way you'd imagined it. Enjoy your night!

Funny: Venting

2011-10-30T21:08:00.000-04:00

Awesome for so many reasons. And cool points to anyone who knows why. :D

Book Reviews: The Truth About Forever

2011-10-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

“Life can be long or short, it all depends on how you choose to live it. it's like forever, always changing. for any of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. you can never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count. what you have to decide is how you want your life to be. if your forever was ending tomorrow, is this how you'd want to have spent it?”

Losing someone you love is hard enough without being there to watch them disappear before your eyes. Hard or not, this is exactly what happens to Macy Queen when her father dies of a heart attack as she watches helplessly. Macy’s older sister grieves by bawling her eyes out for days. Macy’s mother avoids her pain by working nearly twenty-four hours a day. Macy copes by falling for the guy who has all the answers, who has somehow managed to become perfect. For over a year she copies her boyfriend Jason’s every move and goal becoming a straight A student, active in extracurricular activities, and a model daughter, but then Jason leaves for the summer to go to Brain Camp. Suddenly, Macy is left to her own devices and filling in for Jason at the library where the other employees (both female versions of Jason) seem to go out of their way to make her miserable. Everything seems to be going as well as can be expected until an email from Jason blows her world to pieces: I think it’s best for us to take a break from our relationship, and each other, until I return at the end of the summer. It will give us both time to think, so that in August we’ll know better whether we want the same things or if it’s best to sever our ties and make this separation permanent. After reading this email a spur of the moment decision and a twist of fate find Macy signing on to join the Wish catering crew, an unlikely group that just happens to include the sawoon-worthy Wes. Macy eventually discovers that Wes is also on a break from his girlfriend and the two develop a strong friendship, bonding over their non-relationship statuses and a seemingly never-ending game of Truth (the only rule, you have to tell the truth). When the end of summer starts looming closer every day, questions start to race around Macy’s head. Should she get back together with Jason? What will happen to her friendship with Wes? Why does it feel like she’s finally alive for the first time in years?

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen is brilliant. I’ve only ever read one of her other books before (Lock and Key, also highly recommended), but I loved that one too. Sarah has a way of dealing with powerful emotions issues and family crises without making them depressing or overly melodramatic. Her characters are real and relatable and her writing is beautiful. Honestly, authors like Sarah make me wish I was still a “young adult” so that I could have discovered her at a younger age. Her stories make you think about a variety of topics but always seem to leave you with a sense of hope. I loved the subplots in this book, especially; they came together so beautifully by the end. This book will make you take a long look at death, grief, family, love, friendship, truth, flaws, luck, life, choice, infomercials, junkyard art, prison records, and how sometimes finding perfection means accepting that you’ll never have perfection.

Sera’s Rating: 5 stars