My First Book

Opening Blog-tour

2012-03-21T14:52:00.001+02:00

Hi all! Today I welcome Stephen Tremp to MFB. He's here to tell us about exploding stars, black holes and Opening, his newly released novel.

Thanks for stopping by, Stephen.

Thank you Misha for hosting me on this, my final stop on the Grand OPENING Tour! I’m honored. I thought we would close things out with a bang, and what bigger bang can we imagine than an exploding star.

A Supernova: is an explosion of a massive supergiant star. It shines with the brightness of up to ten billion suns and is one of the most energetic explosions in the universe. Scientists believe supernovae happen in our Milky Way galaxy about once or twice a century. Supernovae are classified as a Type I Supernova or Type II supernova depending on the shape of their light curves and the nature of their spectra.In less than a second, a neutron star or a black hole is born. Supernovae explosions are not merely the death of a star. These massive explosions seed the universe with heavy elements (muy importante) that help to make up new stars, planets, and everything on earth, including you and me.

Black Hole: Any object whose escape velocity exceeds the speed of light. With each black hole there is a point of no return called the event horizon. Picture Niagara Falls. You see someone caught in the river heading toward the falls. If he is far enough away he can swim to the shore. But there is a point where the current is too strong and the swimmer cannot escape. He is going over no matter how much energy he expends to swim to the shore. This is similar to the Event Horizon of a black hole. Even light cannot escape a black hole. That's what makes it black.

Fun Theories (no fun facts here as we have yet to actually observe a black hole): There are two types of black holes. Stellar Black Holes form from collapsed stars. It is possible for black holes to collide and form larger black holes. It is believed by many physicists and astronomers that super massive black holes, called Galactic Black Holes, reside at the center of each galaxy. These can be as large as hundreds of thousands to billions of solar masses.

Fun Theory: Physicists also believe there may be rogue black holes cruising (not stationary) around the universe. I hope one doesn't cross our solar system. That would be a bad day for us.

Fun Theory: Some believe you can enter a Black Hole and emerge out the other side in another place and time. Black Hole = Time Machine. But in all probability, you would die before going through.

Fun Theory: Mini black holes are theoretically possible, but have yet to be created in a laboratory. At least, that the general public is aware of. Recently a lawsuit was brought against CERN for fear their research could bring about the end of the world, possibly by man-made mini-black holes.Thank again to Misha for hosting me today. And thank you all for supporting me on the Grand OPENING Tour. I could not have done this without you!

Insert Cheesy Self Promotion: Finally, tomorrow’s my birthday, or today, depending on which day you’re reading this. It’s March 22nd. If you feel so inspired to get me something, outside of a brand new 2012 souped-up turbo 3000 Wormhole with racing stripes, you can download either or both my books BREAKTHROUGH and OPENING at Amazon Kindle. At a buck ninety-nine each, you can’t beat it with a stick! They're also available for download at SMASHWORDSThanks again everyone. You’ve been great! Next up is the Grand OPENING Tour Roundup on Friday, then the A to Z Challenge. Remember to visit me at Breakthrough Blogs!

Interview with Amy Lunderman

2012-03-20T13:30:00.000+02:00

Hi all! Today I'm welcoming Amy Lunderman to MFB. Amy's been a constant cheerleader for me for over a year now, so I jumped at the chance to have her over for a nice girl to girl chat.

M: Hey Amy, how about we start with the usual question: Tell us a little more about yourself?

A: I'm a stay at home mom, to a very busy two year old daughter. I live in northern Rhode Island where the weather has more ups and downs than my toddler does, but I grew up in upstate NY so I'm used to it. I've been with my husband for almost eight years now and it still feels like we never have a dull moment! I've always had a passion for writing and I try to write whenever I have a free moment. If not writing or wrangling my daughter - I also enjoy reading, writing, having dance party with my toddler, watching TV and movies, You Tube, and status updates on Facebook. And if not doing any of THAT I can probably be found watching whatever is going on around me through the backs of my eyelids, because chances are I probably fell asleep on the couch! :)

M: So how many hours a day do you spend writing? Because you're scary productive.

A: Honestly? Only about three to four, give or take, maybe a day. I usually snag an hour first thing in the morning before I have my coffee, this is when I have my best idea's - my dreams are scary imaginative. When my daughter naps, I try to write for another hour or so, most days though I catch up on other things like my sanity. Then at night, I squeeze in another few hours of writing before bed - this is probably why I dream about what I write. If I really push myself, I can have a rough draft out in a little over two weeks, but I like the rest of my writing time to be on edits and rewrites. Lately I've been slowing down a bit, taking my time, and just working on past works. I'm hoping to have something new out by the end of the year, but we'll see I guess.

M: Cool! So what's the freakiest dream that you had and turn into a book?

A: The dream credit has to go to my zombie novel, They Walk, of course the dream is totally different than the book. For example in the book, I have a group of teens at a party before the zombies invade, while in my dream it's already chaos. And by chaos I mean it's incomprehensible in the way only dreams can get away with. For one thing, in my dream I'm locked in this thirty feet high walled in labyrinth type maze, and the only way to avoid the zombies is to climb and avoid slipping into the masses. I remember waking up freaking out about it! I don't know what's worse, fearing the hungry undead or the height of the walls I climbed. Anyways, a lot of the dream was reshaped into something readable, but I do squeeze in a little bit of it, staying loyal to my dreams and all - they're definitely helpful.

M: Nice. I almost wish that I had dreams like that. So tell us about your newest book.

A: Currently I am working on rewrites for The Misadventures of Daria Pigwidgeon, also formerly known as Demonsoul, which is now essentially two books in one. I wasn't all that satisfied with the way book one ended, it didn't really seem complete to me, so changes were a must. As a plus of making it one book, I get to play around some more with the sequel and take it in a new direction! It's basically about a teenage demon that pretty much raised herself because she was born with a soul. After realizing she won't survive much longer under they're treatment, she sets out across the country on her own. What was supposed to be a fresh start becomes a misadventure when her family follows her trail and disrupts the new life she built. Add to the mix of demon powers, an addicting blue eyed pretty boy, shadow stalkers, and high school - then your in the world of Daria, where you'll never have a boring day!

During the last month or so, while I've been working on rewrites, I've also been playing around with a new idea that quickly grew into a new series about witches. This one take magic, fantasy, college, and love all rolled into an exciting thrill-ride! I'm hoping to have it out some time this summer, but we'll see, every day that I work on it spurs new ideas. I have added it to Goodreads though, if anyone would like to see a preview of what it's really about! ;)

M: Sounds really interesting. So who is your favorite character that you've written?

A: That's a tough one! Instead of choosing just one, I'll share the one I like most from all my works.

They Walk: Maggie - She's the heroine of the story, and I've made her with enough snark and grace that she ranks high on my list of favorites.
Persona: Marty - He started out as a side character that grew to be the best friend, and eventually became a love interest who's the best!
The Misadventures of DP: This is a tie between Daria and Chance - the two of them together make for some exciting writing time.
Witch University: Jeremiah - He's the kind of bad boy character I love reading about except this time he's my creation. Writing him is a blast and most times his intentions take me by surprise, so revealing him to readers should be fun!

M: What's your favorite aspect to writing?

A: My favorite aspect of writing has to be the getting lost in a story. I love character and world building - so writing is a great outlet for that.

M: So I'm curious. What got you to start writing?

A: I pretty much started making up wild and crazy stories even before I could write anything. Mostly it was stuff only parents could say was great with a smile on there face even though it was probably incoherent rambles. As I got older though, I became influenced by movies/television I've watched or books that I've read (Are Your Afraid of the Dark; on Nickelodeon and Fear Street by R.L. Stine) so by then the short stories I wrote took more of a horror turn. Over time my short stories became the little novels that tried and slowly evolved into what I would obsess over; paranormal romance fiction!

M: That sounds like me. When did you start getting serious about publishing your stories?

A: I always wondered what it would be like to be published, but I'm such a shy person that the thought of sending out query letters terrified me. So I never really thought I had any other options. But, when I was working on my first novel, They Walk, I came across Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. After finding that, I realized there were a ton of other self-publishing opportunities - that became the way to go for me. Now that I've been getting out there a bit, the prospect of sending out query's doesn't seem so scary and I's slowly working on that angle.

M: Want to tell us more about your newest release?

A: My newest release is a young adult paranormal romance called, Persona: It’s the year 2028 and an experiment that went wrong seventeen years ago sends the world in lock-down from these genetic mutations. Sixteen-year-old Moira Warner knows only fear and secrecy, but that's understandable given she spent her toddler years in a lab. Why? Because she is one of them. Now she barely gets by with hiding her true self. That doesn't mean that she's averse to breaking a rule or two.

But when her curiosity gets the better of her at a new school, she lets loose with popular jock Spencer, and realizes she's been a fool to believe that she could be anything other than what she is; a monster. Before she can confide in anyone for help, her little slip up brings in the authority's and now her secret is out. The horrific memories of her past returns and with it the man that ruined her childhood.

With the help from someone she would have never thought and a group of unlikely accomplices, she must come face to face with her past. A past she would rather forget. Moira now becomes obsessed with getting her questions answered, and Liam is the only one who can provide the information she needs. But in her drive to find the truth, will Moira push her new friends to far, forcing her to leave her family, and the identity that she's shaped? This sends her on a journey to find out what she really is and along the way she just might find herself in the process. Maybe even love, if she's not too busy running and trying to blend in.

M: Sounds really exciting! One last question: where can people find you and your book?

A: You can find me here:Website

Blog
Twitter
Facebook

You Can find my books here:
Goodreads

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Thanks so much for the visit, Amy!

It was a blast. So much so that I'd love to have some more interviews. If you'd like one, please feel free to let me know and maybe we can arrange something. ^_^

Been tagged for the Lucky 7 Meme

2012-03-19T13:30:00.000+02:00

Rachna and Michael Pierce both tagged me for The Lucky Seven Meme. So because I'm lazy, I'm going to post about that rather than the usual "Others have said...".

The rules are as follows:

1) Go to page 77 of your Current MS.
2) Go to line seven.
3) Copy the next 7 lines - sentences or paragraphs - and post them as they're written. No cheating!
4) Tag 7 authors.

Because of time constraints, I won't be passing on the tags. So if you want to have some fun, spread some MS love or just don't know what to post about, use this. ;-) Just let me know.

So... here's the segment from my current MS and all around beast, Doorways...

Note: The lines are a bit awkward, so please take my word for it.

Really?This wasn’t funny.

Itmade her sick.

“That’smy mom.” Her voice wobbled as she fought for control. Her tears flooded downher cheeks as she lost grip of herself. Claire sat down next to her and heldher as sobs racked Callan’s body.

Aftershe cried out, Claire fetched her some tissues. “You didn’t know?”

“No.I know almost nothing about her,” she forced out between hiccups.

So that's me for today. Do you get to an interesting bit if you follow the meme rules?

Guest Post Friday: Sylvia van Bruggen

2012-03-16T17:27:00.000+02:00

Hi all! Welcome to another installment of Guest Post Friday. Today, I welcome my old (in blogfollow years) friend Sylvia. Her blog, Playful Creative, is an interesting mix of her, her writing and some writing tips. There's never a dull moment, so if you want some fun, feel free to give her some follow love.

Take it away, Sylvia.

One of the most awesome aspects of being a writer is that everything is related to writing. Everything I see, hear, touch or experience can be inspiration to use in my novel.

That is one of the reasons my office, my favorite writing place, is surrounded by inspiration. I don't do sparse. I love to sit in here and look at all the things on the shelves above my desk, or leaf through a book on my shelves or play with the unicorn that sits on my desk. My office is one big space for inspiration and creativity.

For me, writing is playful and joyful. If I don't focus on making my writing time like that, I invite in the gremlins called writer's blocks. They have been around me long enough. Now I just write.

Sometimes I do get stuck though, when I wonder where the story wants to be taken next, one of the downsides of being a pantser. I have enough inspiration around me to get myself into finding that next step. I have found that any creative expression can get me back to writing. The best ideas for a story jump into my head when I am creating something entirely different. And that can be anything. The best is doodling. Nothing frees up my mind for inspiration like mindlessly drawing silly things.

But ideas can strike anywhere. As I said before, everything is an inspiration. That is why I think that being a writer must be quite tedious for the other humans in our lives. There have been countless moments of me going, "That is a great idea!" and then maniacally searching for a piece of paper or my phone to jot down the idea. Sometimes I can get so lost in these thoughts that it takes a lot of patience for the other person to get me in the here and now.

This is especially worse when I am writing a novel. My husband often complains I forget things the moment he says them to me. I then invariably say, "Sorry, darling, I have novel brain, my brain is occupied by characters. What were you saying?"

Of course I don't hear him then either.

Hahahaha thanks so much for this Guest Post, Sylvia.

If anyone else still wants to sign up for the rest of the year, please check out this post.

So... what do you do to get your creative juices flowing?

Yay I edited!

2012-03-15T13:42:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I finally started editing again, but it's still slow going, because I'm not as in the story as I was beforehand.

On one hand, I think I should read it from the beginning again, to get deeper into the story. On the other hand, maybe it's a good thing that I'm not so into it.

I have two reasons for this.

The first is that distance is good while editing. Very good. I know that the stuff I changed really did make the reading better.

Another reason is that while the beast isn't chewing me up, I might as well take it a bit slower while looking for my crit partner(s?). So... I might actually have at least a few weeks while having a life.

Imagine that.

So... I'm just going to take it a bit slower and maybe get some reading in. And also take a nap a little later, because my beautiful dog insisted on barking at random moments all hours of last night...

Another thing I decided to change while I'm at it: Sundays. They are now no computer days. I took one last week end and it was such a beautiful feeling that I want another one.

So that's where I am. What about you? Anyone else editing? Anyone coming back from an editing burn-out? How is your writing going?

A Call for Help

2012-03-13T20:57:00.000+02:00

Young Adult Teen Tuesday is a meme hosted by the wonderful Sheri Larsen to showcase all aspects of creating a Young Adult Story.

So... Although I am one of the original participants, I can safely say that I'm far from a regular one. Which makes be feel bad. But today, I have something that's weighing on my heart.

Something, involving my YA Fantasy Epic, Doorways. See, my one crit partner extraordinaire won't be able to critique the ms anymore, because he's about to release his own book.

And that left me with a bit of a problem. Because I have a little more than 100 days left to finish the story... and now am needing a cp whose core strength lies with copy editing.

And who made me laugh. Even though he was so brutally honest that it stung sometimes.

And I need a cp like that if I'm to have any hope of finishing on time. I did start looking for cps and came up with a promising one, but she's still drafting, which is something that I don't want to interrupt with my editing. So although I will definitely be her cp, I can't get the work out right now.

And I'm really really scared of just putting my baby out there to for a stranger without a familiar face to read.

So here I am. ~~Asking~~ begging you. If you are getting to the point where you want to send your work to be critted and you're good at copy editing other people's work, please please please think of me. If you want, I'll ask my other cp's to contact you so that you can see that I don't only take without giving in return.

Okay... begging aside, here's a bit more:

Doorways is the first book of a four book YA Fantasy epic. But I'm willing to crit almost anything except erotica and too dark fantasy. So period novels, thrillers, procedurals, sci fi, romances, fantasy etc all welcome.

My strengths: characterization, world building, plot, voice, pacing.

I need: someone strong on copy-edits, who are honest, but who knows the difference between critting and being critical. Someone who can start within this week.

So if you are that person, and you need a person like me or you know such a person that you can vouch for, please contact me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com. Thanks very very much in advance!

And... because I am so very grateful that you read all of this, if you need a crit and don't suit my profile, put your needs, strengths and contact details in the comments section. Who knows? Maybe you strike it lucky. X

Others have said: You are not alone.

2012-03-12T14:42:00.000+02:00

Every writer I know has trouble writing.

Joseph Heller

So good to know that I'm not alone in this. See, after weeks of doing almost nothing writing related, I feel the need to come back to it, except for when I have the notebook or document open in front of me.

It just feels as if the words don't want to come.

Needless to say, it's frustrating, but I guess that's what happens if you want to take some lazy time.

It's just so annoying, because for the most of a year, I never struggled. But that's the way it goes. I had my break. Now it's time to ease into my routine again. Gently.

What do you do when you're out of your writing/editing groove?

Guest Post Friday: Steven J. Wangsness

2012-03-09T15:19:00.000+02:00

Hi all! Today I welcome Steven J. Wangsness to MFB. Steven's new book, TAINTED SOULS is available on Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook and other e-readers. Check out his website at sjwangsness.blogspot.com. :-)

Take it away, Steven.

Writing a book is like skinning a cat -- there's more than one way to do it.

Some authors map out their novels in minute detail before ever setting pen to paper, pinpointing every plot point with the precision of a military staff officer and cataloging every facet of their characters in encyclopedic fashion -- their appearance, their manner of speaking, their personal histories. With plot and characters so well known in advance, the act of creating a book becomes giving a written account of what already exists.

William Styron (The Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie's Choice) is supposed to have had such an exhaustive road map to his novels before him that his first drafts were his last drafts -- by the time he started to write a novel, all there was left to do was craft the words; everything else about the novel was a known quantity.

Other writers prefer to fly by the seat of their pants or, as they might prefer it, to allow the book to grow organically with minimal direction from the author. In essence, as events occur and characters enter the scene, they determine where the action goes and how the characters grow and who they become. I recall an interview with a British writer a couple of years ago who said he was "too lazy" to write an outline; he just started with a simple idea and let the book go where it went.

Jack Kerouac portrayed himself as just such a writer, having claimed to have written On the Road in long sheets routed through his typewriter in one three-week-long burst of spontaneous fury. The truth is more complex, with the book going through many edits and revisions. (Confession: I've never gotten past page 20.)

As a writer, I lie somewhere in between these extremes, though I have tended more towards the seat-of-the-pants variety. My college term papers were rarely products of long research and carefully outlined prose but mostly coughed up in all-nighters while hunkered down at the typewriter with a few open books and several cups of coffee.

Before I sat down to write my novel Tainted Souls, however, I knew I wanted a detailed plot summary. For one thing, Tainted Soulsis a plot-driven mystery and I didn't think I could afford to wing it. I plotted out all the scenes beforehand, using open-source "mind-mapping" software called FreeMind. I wrote a 15-page, single-spaced summary describing all the action in each of the chapters. Though I wrote down just a few bullet points, rather than detailed histories, I had a good notion of the characters and their motivations before I started writing.

Even so, the plot took twists and turns and the players took on characteristics I hadn't anticipated. These developed out of the writing itself. Just one example: I knew that I wanted my protagonist's partner to be earthy and buffoonish as I set out; but it was only as I was writing the first chapter that he revealed himself to me -- that's how I would describe it -- as corrupt, too. His corruption became not just an interesting aspect of his character but crucial to the plot as it finally evolved; without it, Tainted Souls would be a different book.

For me, then, part of what gets written down grows organically out of the process of writing itself. Characters flesh out, events suggest themselves, sub-themes emerge, all giving the story new hues and affecting the course of the plot. Like real people, the characters reveal more of their true natures the better I get to know them. As in real life, the course of events may take an unexpected turn. It's not for me to argue whether this is a better way of writing than asserting full control of the book from the get-go. However, for me, no matter how carefully and diligently I may pre-cook the final product, at least some of the book is going to "write itself."

How about you? Do your characters take on aspects that surprise you and go down a road you didn't see coming?

Thanks for this great post, Steven! All the best with your book sales.

Before I go, I just want to ask if there's a kind and brave soul out there that would please book 30 March for a GPF? If you're interested, please check out this post and contact me.

OK then! Have a great weekend! X

Insecure Writer's Support Group

2012-03-08T06:20:00.002+02:00

Sorry for only posting now. I'm bit out of the blogging routine now that I haven't blogged for about a week.

But, here I am. Back.

And... with pretty much nothing to post about. See, I haven't been editing, because I'm waiting for another CP to send back my work. As for really writing, I've got such a massive stack of notes now (900 pages and counting) that sorting through it is eating all of my time.

Still... I've learnt some very interesting things about three of my main characters. So at least now I know why Callan makes certain choices that I knew she'd make but couldn't understand. Or Darrion, for that matter. I also know how Gawain will react to these choices.

So at least I can say that I haven't really wasted most of a month. And yet, sometime really soon, I'm going to have to get back to working on the actual writing.

My muse and Darrion are sort of leaning on me to get going.

Have you ever done something else constructive that helps your writing, but isn't writing, only to feel sucky because you haven't actually written?

Rachel Morgan on YA Stereotypes

2012-03-06T13:46:00.000+02:00

YA Stereotypes

Ever since I discovered YA fiction, I’ve loved both reading and writing it. But after immersing myself in it for a while, I noticed something (something that I’m sure hasn’t escaped your attention either!). There are certain themes that crop up pretty often in YA literature. So often, in fact, that I now expect to come across at least one whenever I read a new YA book.

The Love Triangle

Usually a girl and two guys. Usually a nice guy (kind and sensitive, possibly a best friend for years) and a bad boy (the kind your parents most certainly wouldn’t approve of). There’s a lot of emotional back-and-forth while the heroine tries to figure out who she really wants to be with, and you, the reader, can usually tell from the beginning who it will be. And neither boy ever seems to think, You know what? This girl is messing me around. I’m off to find someone else.

Love At First Sight

I can understand attraction at first sight. That makes sense to me. You see a guy (or girl) for the first time, he’s really good-looking, and you feel attracted to him. But love? And that instant “connection” you often read about? Hmm. I have a hard time buying that. I think love and a connection can only come once you know a person.

The Bad Boy Love Interest

Rude, obnoxious, sarcastic, dark-and-brooding, has a troubled past, pushes the heroine away, no one else has ever been able to change him, but for THIS HEROINE he will turn his life around and become a better person. Secretly, I like this one (if I have to pick a vertex on the love triangle, I’m usually Team Bad Boy). And I’d like to believe it’s possible. I’m sure in some cases it is. But surely in other cases, the guy who’s a jerk will always be just that – a jerk. And the heroine should tell him to get lost and instead find an awesome good guy (like Cricket from Lola and the Boy Next Door!)

I’m not saying these themes are wrong. There are, of course, instances where they work really well. For example, the love triangles in The Hunger Games series (Katniss, Peeta, Gale) and The Infernal Devices series (Tessa, Will, Jem) are cleverly pulled off and add much to the storyline. And sometimes the Bad Boy has a really good reason for acting like such a jerk (again, Will from The Infernal Devices series).

After thinking about it for a little while, I realized that none of these three stereotypes show up in Guardian:

there’s only one main guy, Nate, so no love triangle;

Vi thinks Nate is kinda cute, but once he ruins her perfect assignment record by following her into the fae realm, love-at-first-sight is the last thing on her mind;

and Nate is certainly not a “bad boy”. In fact, the only bad boy here is Ryn (the faerie who reports Vi’s assignment screw-up), and Vi’s feelings for him extend more toward shoving him out of a tree than love.

But you may have noticed there’s a stereotype I haven’t mentioned yet . . .

Forbidden Love

And that’s because, well, there may, kinda, possibly be a bit of this in Guardian! I mean, Violet's a faerie, Nate’s a human, it’s against Guild Law for him to know she exists, so of course any feelings Vi may, kinda, possibly develop toward Nate would be forbidden!

Okay, so I couldn't steer completely clear of stereotypes!

A question for readers and writers: How do feel about these YA “stereotypes”?

~ ~ ~

Rachel Morgan is the author of Guardian, the first novelette in the Creepy Hollow series. She was born in South Africa and spent a large portion of her childhood living ina fantasy land of her own making. These days, in between teaching mathematics to high school children, she writes fiction for young adults.

Buy Guardian from

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords

The Creepy Hollow Series

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Book Trailer

Author Info

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Google+

Creepy Hollow Launch Day

2012-03-05T20:00:00.000+02:00

Hey all! Just stopped by from my blogging break to let you know about one of my blogging friends' new book series: Creepy Hollow. This is the announcement:

Today the Creepy Hollow series kicks off with the release of the first story, GUARDIAN!!
GUARDIAN introduces readers to the magical world of Creepy Hollow, a realm where fae creatures — both safe and definitely-not-so-safe — dwell. Things are cool as long the fae stick to their own realm. It's when they find their way into the human world that things start going wrong...

1. Receive assignment.

2. Save a life.

3. Sleep.

4. Repeat.

Protecting humans from dangerous magical creatures is all in a day’s work for a faerie training to be a guardian. Seventeen-year-old Violet Fairdale knows this better than anyone—she’s about to become the best guardian the Guild has seen in years. That is, until one of her assignments—a human boy who shouldn’t even be able to see her—follows her into the fae realm. Now she’s broken Guild Law, a crime that could lead to her expulsion.

The last thing Vi wants to do is spend any more time with the boy who got her into this mess, but the Guild requires that she return Nate to his home and make him forget everything he’s discovered of the fae realm. Easy, right? But Nate and Vi are about to land themselves in even bigger trouble—and it’ll take all Vi’s training to get them out alive.

Buy from Amazon US
Buy from Amazon UK
Buy from Smashwords

The Creepy Hollow Series

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Book Trailer

Author Info

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Google+

To find out more about the series, the author, and the characters, check out the blog tour that’s happening over the next two weeks.

Click here for the blog tour schedule

Guest Post Friday: Mia Hayson

2012-03-02T13:20:00.000+02:00

Hi all, today I welcome someone who I see as a bit of a blogging legend. Her quirky style and awesome blogging voice always keep me going back for more. So if you've never read Mia's blog, I suggest you hop over there right now.

My break is still in full swing, but I'll see you all on Wednesday. In the mean time, I hope you don't miss me too much! ;-P Have a great weekend. X

Take it away, Mia. Thanks for this great post. *hugs*

My supervsor said something interesting the otherday. It struck me right down the middle. It rang true. ALLOW ME TO PARAPHRASEIT HERE.

She said, “Mia,sometimes the insignifcant results are the ones that really count.”

Profound, but only if you know the background. So!Allow me to fill you in on some important deets:

1) Iam a final year Psych undergrad researching WORDSand PSYCHOLOGY and STUFF. This sounds super fantastic but a) they’reonly temporal words and b) all I can really tell you right now is that pastwords happen before future ones and this is really COOL. QED.

2) Ihave a supervisor who supervises my research, as le name suggests.

3) Iexperiment on REAL LIVE PEOPLE, FYI.

4) Myresults THUS FAR are insignificant.That is to say, the results we expected were not found at all. I spend mynights weeping in a corner and drowning my sorrows with ice cream because ofthis.

So! Background complete! Now what am I getting at? Well,guys, that’s right, you guessed it, I want to talk about writing here.

I want to talk about mistakes.Mistakes in writing are likeinsignificances in research, they’re actually tres interesting. Ittook a while for me to see it, but blunders are important. Those early days when you first start out andeverything that comes out of your creative moments feel DIRTY, and not in a sensual way but in a I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING HERE I AM JUST REACHINGFOR THINGS way? Those days?

They are important. They are so very important.

For without confusing a prologue with a first chapter,without stumbling through awkward dialogue, and crying over lost descriptions,without any of that how are we to learn how to write? There are no set rules inwriting, even the ones everyone gets so hung up on are occasionally and verysuccessfully broken. There are no rules in writing and that is why it’s sohard to describe how we do it.

Do we sit in a dark room surrounded by only thewhisperings of imaginary people or do we write in a café encased by the buzzingof life? Do we cry? Do we laugh? Do we start at the beginning and work forward?Do we not?

As far as I can tell, we doall of it. It’s up to you topick and choose. And that’s why the apparent mistakes, and the occasionalawkward paragrpahs, are important. The disappointing results of your efforts,and the confusing outcome of nights of hard work, they help you understand whoyou you are. And only by knowing who you are asa writer can you know how it is you can write.

Because sometimes the things that go wrong,

the abandoned novels and

the words that won’t quite

come together.

Sometimes they are the most important of all.

The show you the way to

the greatness within.

So HOW DO WE WRITE? I cannot possibly tell you, but I cantell you how we don’t write. We don’t write by being timid, by being unable toconquer our fears. We don’t write by sticking only to what we know will work,and by never taking chances. We are dynamic, flexible, and brave indidivuals.We try, and we are not afraid of the darkness.We are, and that is enough.

So! Haha! What are the mistakes and insignifiances youhave encountered in your journey? I know the main one for me was NOT TO PLOT. Iam very bad at plotting, as soon as I accepted that one things got a littleeasier.

I didn't forget to post...

2012-02-28T20:47:00.001+02:00

Hi all. I haven't forgotten to post today. But the huge amounts of singing that I've been doing recently has been leaving me drained. So, because I'll have three more of these singing marathons in the next week, I think I might take a few days off from blogging.

Whether or not I come back to post for the rest of the week, GPF will continue.

Love,

Misha

Once more. With Feeling.

2012-02-27T23:33:00.001+02:00

I've been tagged yet again. Not once. Not twice, but thrice. But because I'm seriously getting karmic brownie points for answering every single question, I'm breaking the rules again. I'm going to ask that you pick one of the questions and answer it in the comments. Easy, right?

Yikici

1. Where did the inspiration for writing your WIP come from?
For the first time in a very long time, I was rereading a book (actually seven): Chronicles of Narnia. About two or three months before that, I'd physically gone and burnt notes to my previous WiP and wiped the draft off my laptop. So there I was, in a self-imposed exile from writing, waiting for a very VERY good idea what would blow my socks off.

But I digress. I was reading one of the Chronicles (not sure which one any more, although I suspect that it was The Horse and His Boy) and there he was: moody, full of shit, ruthless, dark and... interestingly, charming. But definitely NOT of Narnian breeding (even though I foolishly tried to force him to be something similar once).

The rest was history.

2. Any interesting tales about your muse?

Well, she sort of takes a holiday now, when I write Doorways, Darrion takes over from her and keeps me focused. He also does some really dark and twisted things to my internal editor and internal critic when they speak out of turn.

3. Your muse; fab/frustrating/inbetweener?
Oh... to see what Darrion's like, you'll have to wait for the book to come out. As for the other one, she's a bitch. Always shows up when I can't write and leaves when I can.

4. Why do you write?
Because I go nuts when I don't.

5. If you could enhance one of your senses, which would it be?
Hmm... not sure. Because I sort of have perfect sight, smell (when my sinuses are clear. damn you fruit farmers), hearing (which I'm paranoid about) and taste. So I guess that leaves touch, but that sounds painful.

6. When you are not creating what do you do?
Uh... what do you mean, when I'm not creating? I'm creating even when I'm... not... creating.

7. Ask yourself a question –now answer it.

Is that a question? ... No. ;-P

8. How long is a piece of string?

This long.

9. What was the last dream you saw?

Not sure, actually. I've been trying to remember all day. I remember it was interesting.

10. In a film about your life, which actor would play you?

Uhm... possibly Kiera Knightly. She could be made to resemble me if we really worked at it.

11. What’s your motto in life and also your work ethics?

Don't give other people too much say in your choices. It's all right to ask for advice, but trust nothing without thought.

Sylvia:

1. Someone is holding your book in their arms and are gushing about it to you. What do they say?

"OMG OMG OMG I can't believe I'm talking to my favorite author!!!! *SQUEEEEEEE!!!*"

A girl can dream, right?

2. Which children's/young adult book did you only read and LOVE as an adult?

Does The Hobbit, count?

3. What makes your favorite writer so special? What in their writing do you love?

Don't really have a favorite writer. I have favorite stories. And those are made with complex characters, great plots and fresh voices.

4. Which advice would you have loved to have when you started out writing?

Actually, I'm really lucky to have a published author (my gran) living with me. So I knew what I needed to know when I started. I guess one thing I would have liked to be more aware of would be the amount of commitment a novel takes, but no one can tell you that. You only find that out by writing a full length novel.

5. Where do you go in your daydreams?

Everywhere and nowhere.

6. Where do you love to write?

Very noisy places, or quiet places where I can listen to music without sounds clashing.

7. Did you pick certain actors or tv-personalities for your writing? If so, who?

Only if there's a photo of them with the exact right look and feel.

8. Did you ever write a character who then never left your mind?

Yep. That would be Darrion and company. :-)

9. Pick one fictional character. Describe how it would be to meet them.

D'Artagnan. I'd ask him for swordsmanship tips. ^_^

10. What do you have around your writing space to inspire you?

Music.

11. Do you make writing soundtracks? Name the first three songs on it!

Yep. I actually have ten for the Doorways series. One for each of the five main characters and one supporting character. One for each of the four books that I have in mind. So I hope you don't mind if I skip on naming songs.

D.M.:

1. What was your favorite novel growing up?

Hmm... Three Musketeers and Sherlock Holmes tied.

2. Tell me about somewhere you went that was better than you expected it to be, (store, vacation, party, etc)

Whenever I go somewhere or do something without expectations, I'm pleasantly surprised. Like watching Despicable Me.

3. If you could be anyone fictional who would you be and why?

Hmm... this is like that historical personality question that I got the first time. I actually like not being the person in the book. Still, if I could be someone fictional, I'd be Callan from Doorways. I'm thinking Mike knows why.

4. Name a movie that had a serious impact on you.

Ooh there are way too many to count.

5. What made you start a blog, or get a social network page if you don't have a blog?

It's something I've always wanted to do. And one day, after I decided to knuckle down and finish what would become Doorways, I closed my eyes and started blogging to keep myself accountable.

6. Who's the best villain you've ever read or seen?

That's like picking my favorite child. :-/

7. What your favorite creative outlet?

Uhm. Writing?

8. Name one way you deal with stress.

Writing.

9. Name someone you admire, and why.

My mom and gran.... because they're my mom and gran. ;-)

10. Which is better waffles or pancakes?

Depends on my mood. Last week I had waffles, so now pancakes are better.

Last, but not least....
11. What is your favorite quote?

Sorry. Really don't have one. What about.... no... no that's not the one I remember.

Guest Post Friday: Angie Lofthouse

2012-02-24T16:24:00.002+02:00

Hi all! Welcome to another edition of Guest Post Friday. But before we start, I want to beg, plead and ask with awesome sprinkles on top. See in a few weeks, I have no GPF guests. And it would be terrible if that happened. You'd have to read stuff my ME on a Friday. And that would be wrong (unless it's April).

So... please please check out this post on how GPF works and e-mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

OK... Now onwards!

Great Relationships
Great stories have great characters and great characters have great relationships. Now, by great I don't necessarily mean warm and loving relationships (though they may be). I mean dynamic, complex, interesting and fun relationships. Think of some of the great relationships in literature. Here are some I love:

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy
Frodo and Sam
Denethor and Faramir
Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader
Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner

See? Many different types of relationships and all of them great! I love stories with deep and complex relationships. (Okay, Wile E. and Road Runner don't have a complex relationship, but still…)

In any story your characters will likely be interacting with other characters, and therefore will have relationships. Those relationships are worth thinking about. All sorts of things influence our interactions with others. Appearance, first impressions, background, prejudices, shared experiences, cultural expectations… The list could go on. Relationships are rarely static, either. They evolve over time for better or for worse as each person changes and grows.

My best advice for creating great relationships is to first know your characters. Know them well. If they are real people to you, then they will interact with each other in real and interesting ways. If they're just cardboard cutouts and their relationships exist only to push the plot along…well, that's not usually very engaging. Make sure character interactions aren't based strictly on stereotypes, either.

I always say that great characters are the most important part of any story, but if you look a little deeper, you realize that the characters' relationships with each other can take your story from ordinary to something special!
Angie Lofthouse has published a dozen sci-fi and fantasy short stories in a variety of print and online magazines. Her debut novel, Defenders of the Covenant, will be available this March. You can read her short fiction and learn more about her novel at her website or visit her blog for more writing advice and other fun posts.

So... which are your favorite relationships in books?

First Campaigner Challenge

2012-02-23T21:28:00.000+02:00

I know I left this a little late, but the prompt had me intrigued, so I decided to write something for the First Campaigner Challenge.

This is the challenge:

Write a short story/flash fiction story in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, including a poem. Begin the story with the words, “Shadows crept across the wall”. These five words will be included in the word count.

If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional), do one or more of these:
end the story with the words: "everything faded." (also included in the word count)
include the word "orange" in the story
write in the same genre you normally write
make your story 200 words exactly!

So, since I hardly ever go for the easy way, I:

Started and ended the piece as suggested.
included the word orange
actually wrote a scene that will be a variation of what happens in Book 3 of the Doorways series.
made my piece exactly 200 words long.

Hope you enjoy it!

Shadows crept across the wall, but Ward didn’t move to welcome them or fend them off. How could he, when an infernal fire licked his body?

“Ward,” Rhiannon whispered as her small weight settled on his mattress. “You need to eat.”

Eat? No. He wanted to die.

“Don’t close your eyes, Ward,” the cat-sized dragon commanded, nudging the spot on his cheek that didn’t burn.

“Leave me alone.” He lifted his hand to push her away, shooting lava through his veins. An agonized scream fled out of him.

Water rushed through his throat and he choked. He turned his head aside and found Rhiannon with a glass in her mouth. Her big orange eyes blinked slowly, as if she was surprised at his reaction.

“Sorry,” she mumbled past the obstruction and crept closer. “Drink.”

Damn it. Why couldn’t she understand?

“No.”

“Drink!” The glass tipped precariously above him as Rhiannon loomed near. How much would the water scald if it fell on his ravaged face?

“I’ll drink!” He took a deep breath. “I’ll drink.”

It took every ounce of his willpower to lift his head. Agony coiled out, threatening to choke him. Still he drank.

He drank until everything faded.

Key-Word Cavalry: How Keywords Work

2012-02-22T22:40:00.000+02:00

Your friendly Google search gremlin
Source

This isn't, strictly speaking, something that came up among the key-words that brought searches to my blog. Instead, one of my better blogging friends, Wendy, asked on the very first Key-Word Cavalry post if I could do a post about the key-words themselves.
So here goes:

Google employs a few thousand Internet gremlins, you see. And every time you write something into the search engine, they send you to the web pages that they best think suit your search.

That's what I used to think. In fact, I still like to think about it that way. Because a lot of what I do just comes naturally.

But, there are supposedly method to the madness, but since I'll cling to the gremlin theory with my dying breath, I thought I'd refer you to someone else's blog post that gives some great tips, much better than I could do it.

25 Reasons Why Google Hates Your Blog

So... what is your theory on how keywords work?

Tagged again.

2012-02-21T21:43:00.000+02:00

Hey. Over the weekend, I've been tagged a multitude of times. Four, to be exact.

So I will be answering more questions, but I will be breaking a rule and ask that you pick a few questions and answer them.

So first up are questions from C.M. Brown:

1. How do the stories you write about come into fruition?

I'm not really sure what you mean, but if you're referring to where the stories come from, they differ. My main WiPs, however, both come from characters walking into my head while I was reading.

2. Do you think you are the type of person who plans for every eventuality, or do you prefer to live life how it comes, without any organisation?

I used to plan for every eventuality, but found out the hard day that a too rigid structure can be a bad thing. On the other hand, having no structure at all isn't a good thing either. So, now I set myself goals, but without any set plan as to how to achieve it. Might sound weird, but it's a system that works.

3. What is your favourite song?

Well... it changes, but right now, it's this. Because it reminds me of the Doorways series.

4. Do you sing it loudly to yourself?

Oh yeah. Come on. It's a ballad.

5. Are you still friends with anyone you went to secondary school with?

Yep, with one girl in my A-Level year.

6. What would be your dream job?

Well, performing. Working on it.

7. How often do you speak to your siblings?

Can't avoid the ass. We live together.

8. If you were an animal, what creature would you like to be? Use your imagination.

Uhm... probably a wolf. Which is also the animal I'd probably be if I were an animal.

9. I love eating boiled eggs for breakfast, what is your favourite food?

Does chocolate count?

10. What piece of technology could you not live without?

My computer. I shudder to think what it would have been like to edit without a word processor.

11. Do you have a favourite piece of furniture?

Yes. A Victorian washing table.

Next, it's time to face Jacob Adams's questions. He very sneakily tagged me back, and since I don't run from challenges, here are my answers:

1. What is one author you can't refuse?

Hmm... I actually work according to genre instead of author, so there are few authors that I could resist.

2. Do you listen to music while writing or prefer silence?

Music. Otherwise a restaurant that's so busy that noise and movement fade into the background.

3. To you, what is the hardest thing about writing?

Staying patient when the doldrums come.

4. What is something that happened in your childhood that influenced your writing today?

Actually, it was more my Gran. She influenced me by telling me that I should write. :-)

5. Movie night: Comedy, Sci-Fi, Romance, or Horror?

Almost anything BUT: no horror. no slapstick. no lame scenarios to throw people together that shouldn't have.

6. What is your biggest pet peeve?

I have two: Arrogance and hypocrisy.

7. Favorite season?

In the summer it's winter, in the winter it's summer. Go figure.

8. What was the first book you simply could not put down?

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

9. If you could time travel (without the ability to influence the past), what time period would you visit?

Oh... any time in European history. Or American. Or... South Africa, after colonization. Yeah... I'm sort of nuts about history.

10. Would you live on the moon or Mars if ever given a chance? Why or why not?

The moon. Why? The view.

11. What is the biggest thing that scares you?

If you're talking about phobias: Water (yes. I row), needles (will never become a junkie), escalators (only got onto them without issues at the age of 13) and heights. However, I do make a point to deal with my fears, because I won't let them rule my life.

Other fears: That I'll be stuck in a soul-killing occupation because I'll settle for second best when it comes to living my dream.

Then there are questions from fellow South African, Rossandra White.

1. What book have you always wanted to read, but still haven’t gotten around to it?

Well. I've always wanted to read the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes. I'm about 90% through. But for some reason, I always lose His Last Bow. :-/

2. What classic book do you feel is overrated? Why?

Hmmm... Actually, none of them that I've read. Oliver Twist was good, but not as good as I'd thought it would be from the movies. See... a lot of it, and some characters, get cut out in adaptions...

3. What is your favorite movie adaptation of a book? Least favorite?

Favorite: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Least: Actually, I very rarely like adaptions of books I've read, so I'm struggling to single out one.

4. Where is your favorite place to write?

In my room, on my bed. Or in a busy cafe/restaurant.

5. Pen, pencil or computer?

Pen when drafting. Computer for edits. Never a pencil unless drawing.

6. What was your favorite toy as a child?

Hmm... probably my Star Castles, but most of my playtime was taken by play-acting with my cousin. So I guess that would make our dress-up clothes my favorite.

7. What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?

Hmm. From other people's perspective: Finishing my degree. From mine: digging myself out from rock bottom and finding where I want to go in my life.

8. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one ability or quality, what would it be?

Still can't decide between time control or telekinesis.

9. What are five songs you hate to admit you love?

Hmm. Nope. I'm much too sure of myself to be shy about my personal taste. ;-)

10. Where is your dream destination, (or place you’ve always wanted to go)?

Europe.

11. What are the top five things on your bucket list?

In no order:
1) Tour Europe
2) Tour North America
3) Speak eight languages fluently
4) Publish.
5) Perform on stage.

Finally (if you made it all the way to here, wow) there are questions from C. Lee McKenzie.

1. What's the best part of reading a book you love?

That bittersweet sense at the end that I wished that the story would continue.

2. What book(s) have stayed in your head?

Actually, at least one aspect of any book that I've ever read sticks with me when I read. No matter how good or bad. Sometimes I can look at a cover of a book I read when I was ten and tell you the story, the main characters, the main conflicts and the end. It's... apparently very weird.

3. If you could write one book only, what would the main character be like?

Like the ones in Doorways.

4. What book(s) do you love to read to your kids?

Don't have kids, but one day I will let them pick. Then I'll read once or twice, and let them read it on their own. That's how my massive love of reading started.

5. Do you ever read books aloud to others?

Portions of books.

6. Do you like discussing books with others?

Love it.

7. If you hate a book, do keep reading anyway or put it away?

I keep reading. At first because of obsession, but now because there are awesome writing lessons to be learnt.

8. What kind of books do you like best? Sci-fi, Realistic, Historical Fiction, Biography, other.

Any. I like good stories.

9. Are you transitioning into the digital age with a Kindle or a Nook or a I-Pad? Or are you sticking with those hard copies? Do you mix it up?

I love hard copies, but since I started blogging, I'm so jealous of all the books I'm missing because I have to read on my laptop (which I don't enjoy).

10. How much do covers influence your buying a book?

Actually, not much. I pick by feel. Another weird thing for you to work out what I mean. ;-)

11. Any new books you'd recommend?

Oooh... I'm still trying to catch up on my TBR pile. Right now I'm on Jane Austen, so new books aren't that high on my priority list. But I do recommend Persuasion.

So these are my answers. What are yours?

Guest Post Friday: Cherie Reich

2012-02-17T17:17:00.000+02:00

Against All Odds – Finding the Romance

Hello, everyone! Misha asked me to talk about relationships, especiallysince I recently published my space fantasy romance novelette Defying Gravity.

First off, Defying Gravity isn’t your typical romance. In fact, it has avery big problem. The main characters only catch a glimpse each other beforethey are captured and divided by a rock wall with just a small crack to heareach other’s voices. Like the ill-fated and wall-divided lovers Pyramus and Thisbe from Roman mythology,I had to discover a way for the characters to fall in love without sight.

Alezandros is a Medusan. Linia is a Persean. They live on two very differentplanets, since Medusa is a post-apocalyptic planet and Persea is in its prime.Their peoples hate each other. Everything is stacked up against them, so how dothey fall in love?

Well, not to give everything away, I focused on the characters, theirrelationships. I used glimpses of their family, their lives to show how similarthey were. To find that common bond between them that could grow into so muchmore.

When writing romance, I believe it helps to find that connection between thecharacters. The writer must think about all the aspects in the characters’lives. Lust can turn into love, but a strong foundation will make the love allthat more realistic. Opposites may attract, but I think it’s the similarities,the bonds that deepen the romance and love.

I hope that’s what I managed to portray in Defying Gravity.

A question for writers: How do you build relationships in your works?

Thank you, Misha, for having me on your lovely blog!

Defying Gravity by Cherie Reich

Book Description:
Homesick upon the SS Perseid, Linia, a young linguist, thinksshe signed up for a mission of peace, but her crew members have another plan:attack the planet Medusa.

Bored with his dying planet, Alezandros, a space cruiser pilot, joins theMedusan Army in his quest for adventure.

When the SS Perseid clashes with the Medusans’ space cruisers, Alezandros andLinia’s lives intertwine. Sucked through a wormhole, they crash upon apost-apocalyptic Earth and are captured by cannibals. In adjacent cells,Alezandros and Linia cast their differences aside for a common bond: escape.But when romantic feelings emerge between them, they might do the unthinkablebecause for a Medusan and a Persean to fall in love, it would defy gravity.

Book Links:
Surrounded by Books Publishing

Goodreads

Amazon

Author Bio:
Cherie Reich is a writer, freelance editor and library assistant.She enjoys writing horror, fantasy, and mysteries, but she doesn’t let thatstop her from trying other genres. Her short stories have appeared in magazinesand anthologies, and her e-books include Once Upon a December Nightmare, TheBest of Raven and the Writing Desk, and Defying Gravity. She is a member of theVirginia Writers Club and Valley Writers and placed third in Roanoke Valley’sBIG READ writing contest.

Author Links:
Website

Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

I've been tagged

2012-02-16T16:30:00.000+02:00

Just as I thought I'd never know what to write today's post about, I got tagged by Alessandra Hinlo and Regina.

Rules are: I answer 11 questions and make up my own and tag 11 people.

So... my answers are:

(Alessandra)
1. What’s the most interesting place you’ve visited?
London.

2. Favorite food?
Pizza. But with meat and lots of cheese. No olives. And preferably no pineapple or green peppers. Garlic, on the other hand...

3. Horror: yes or no?
No. Horror is sadly one genre that I've never learnt to appreciate.

4. What is one thing you absolutely must do before you die?
Tour the whole of Europe.

5. Do you write in the morning or in the evening?
Uhm... *mumbles* Both. Have I mentioned that I almost have no life any more?

6. What’s your favorite urban legend or ghost story?
Probably the Magersfontein ghosts. Or the Girl from Uniondale. Or the Flying Dutchman. Did I ever mention my deep abiding fascination with ghost stories?

7. Are you left-handed or right-handed? (I ask this because I’m a leftie!)
Right handed. Unless I eat.

8. What’s your favorite mode of travel? (by car, plane, train, ship, etc)
Any of the above except ship, but only because I haven't been on one yet. I like traveling. No matter by which mode of transport.

9. Do you have any scars? How did you get them?
Yes I have a two inch long gash on my left leg from a musical chairs accident.

10. Favorite author?
Hmm... I shall cop out here and say there are too many to list.

11. Apple or PC?
PC

(Regina)

1- What is your favourite writing place?
I have two: my room with music in my ears, or any busy restaurant/cafe.

2-What is the best thing about writing?
That moment when you get into the writing zone and everything feels good afterwards.

3-What is your favourite quote?
Hmm... I don't rightly know. I like quotes, but can never remember them.

4-Where do you get inspiration from?
For books: from characters walking into my head, reading, pictures, playing computer games... In fact, there's very little that I don't find inspiring. Special mentions: when I'm a passenger in a car and when I'm showering.

5-If you could be a historical figure, who would you be and why?
This one is pretty tricky. I'd actually prefer to be someone close to some historical figures like Churchill or Henry VIII, but then not too close. Wouldn't want to catch that red-head's eye.

6-Name you top three favourite authors.
Alexandre Dumas Pere
C.S. Lewis
J.R.R. Tolkien
In no particular order.

7-If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Europe.

8-Besides reading and writing, name other two pastimes hobbies.
Currently Singing and Dancing. (amongst others)

9- Name your top three websites.
(for humor)
Ctrl Alt Delete
XKCD
Deathstar PR

10-What advice would you give to an aspiring author?
Just write. Find yourself before comparing to others and learning rules.

11- What special power would you choose to have?
Hmm... Telekenesis or time travel. Can never decide which.
My Questions:

1. Do you believe in fate?
2. How the heck do you write and have a life?
3. If you were in a written story, which character trope would you most likely have followed?
4. Sweet or Savory?
5. What's your big dream?
6. Fondest memory?
7. What's your biggest wish? (world peace does not count)
8. Would you rather have an exciting life and be alone or find the great love of your life and live a relatively normal one?
9. Have you ever done something, only to realize a half a second later that you made a mistake?
10. Did you try to go back and fix it, or did you follow through?
11. Do you edit while writing or after the draft is done?

To tag, I am going to go with my 11 most recent writing blogging friends with links who have not been tagged today. That way, I get to know them a bit better. :-)

So...
Michael Horvath
Treelight
D.G. Hudson
Julie Dao
Alexandra Shostak
Jacob Adams
Stephanie Allen
Gina
Nick Hight
James
Karina Lawrence

Key-Word Cavalry: Novel "doesn't fit a genre"

2012-02-15T20:40:00.000+02:00

This has been quite a bone of contention the previous times that it got mentioned on this blog, but since I haven't ever really written about it myself, I thought I'd put my opinion out there.

So... you wrote a book. And it was beautiful. And unique.

So unique that it transcends genre.

Right?

After all, who are those evil corporate monsters to push your baby into a box that it never will comfortably fit?

Well, beloved searcher, while I have no idea what you were thinking as you typed today's phrase, if it sounded like the above, you might want to look into going through a mind-shift.

Why?

For more than one reason:

First one would be if you want to trad publish, you want to make your book as easy to sell as possible. The easier it would be to sell, the bigger chance you'll have of getting published. Publishing houses need to know which shelf your book needs to sit on. And it can't sit on five different shelves. Because that would be stealing space from the poor person who wrote a simple but beautiful story that fit in only one genre.

Ha, you might say, I want to self publish. Excellent point, searcher. Except, we humans are silly creatures. You say: Epic romantic fantasy dreamscape with sci fi elements. We read: MESS. This is not a poTAYto poTAHto scenario. Besides. I think it's a lot better to be pleasantly surprised about what's in the book. Rather than reading every single aspect of it while perusing the synopsis.

But MISHAAAAAA, you might say, my book does not fit into a genre. Why am I going to put a square peg into a round hole? My answer to this is simple: Guess what. Most people's books don't fit exactly into a given genre. If they did, there would be no variety. Monotony is boring. Boring is bad. BUT, there is hope yet. If you stop being so worried about insulting a few strings in your storyline, you'll find that some of those holes you mentioned are more square than others. Your peg will fit. Maybe not exactly, but close enough.

So... go for broad strokes. No story will be exactly equally fantasy/thriller/romance or whatever. If you sit still and think about it, one aspect will be bigger than the others. Do you worry more about the epic world than the thrill or romance? Then it's a (thrilling but never say this) fantasy. If the thrill is more important, it's a thriller (set in a fantasy world). If the story would cease to exist without the romance, it's a romance (set in a fantasy world). Not that hard, is it?

Or perhaps you're not dead sure about what genre you're supposed to go for. In that case, there's a useful genre map.

Click here to read up about the genres.

How did you decide on your genre?

Something weird that works

2012-02-14T20:39:00.000+02:00

Today's post is for Young Adult Teen Tuesday, which is hosted by the wonderful S.A. Larsen.

As some of you might know, I am not only editing Doorways. I'm also slowly starting to work on the rough draft of the sequel.

Insanity, some might say, but I believe there's method to my madness.

See, the real insanity would have resumed if I didn't do it. I simply CAN'T wait another two years before continuing the story. I want to know what happens. And I want to know now.

Which would lead me to something really illuminating that I stumbled upon recently.

My crit partner and I let our main characters meet.

Yes. Meet. And interact.

Yep. It does sound weird. But after the initial WTF moments, we discovered that the interactions between the characters form a treasure trove of information.

I think it's because there's no story into which to force them, so they can just hang out, be cool, or not, or do awesome stuff. OR mess up.

And I'm there, making notes.

This is particularly illuminating when it comes to two of my male main characters, because neither of them actually talk to me in character interviews. It ended up that my crit partner and I forced a bunch of them into a room and let them get drunk.

With some VERY interesting results. Half of the stuff I now know about my main characters will never make it into the books, but like backstory, it's something that forms the foundation of their actions and choices.

What weird and wonderful things have you tried in order to get to know your characters?

Origins Blogfest

2012-02-13T15:44:00.000+02:00

Today I'm taking part in the Origins Blogfest, so I get to tell you where my writing dream began.

Well, it goes something like this:

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Since today won't be a strict Others have said day, I get to cheat a little. See, the as much as I love reading, the above quote actually applies to me better if it referred to creating stories.

My love for stories is in my blood. By the time I was born, my gran had written and published and/or saw on t.v. a multitude of stories in my first language. So when I played with my cousin (with whom I grew up), we created stories. And characters. And plots. And descriptions.

When I was taught to read and write, my cousin and I started writing silly little books with single words per page that meant something to us. As we grew older, the play-acting continued, but we went our seperate ways when it came to writing. Still, there were few competitions (mainly poetry) that we didn't enter and win. I think I was nine when I tried to write my first movie script.

The one thing I did not lack was ambition.

The movie script (as happens with nine year olds) lost it's appeal to me, but in middle school, a wonderful thing happened to me. I was required to write essays for two languages. At first, it was harsh going, but after my gran explained the basics, I started getting A's for my efforts. And I fell in love with the chance to record the dozen-a-day ideas I had milling around in my brain.

Still, as I continued to grow older, I got this keen sense of dissatisfaction. I started arguing with my teachers. Because my stories wouldn't fit into the word count stated. Other kids in my class tried to haggle the word counts down. I begged the teacher to give me more. I mean: who the hell can write an entire deep, complex story in 250 plus minus 10%? Were they kidding me?

That was when I started to think about just writing away from school. Fact was, school writing fixes were to small.

So sometime this month, ten years ago, I opened my first word document and started typing just for the hell of it. And I never looked back since.

I have joined the Campaign.

2012-02-11T17:22:00.001+02:00

Rachael Harrie is holding a mini-campaign that will run until 17 March and I signed up. Her campaigns are a great way to meet new bloggers, so if you haven't yet, go check out how it works and join us campaigners.

For those of you visiting my blog for the first time: Hi! I'm Misha. I mainly write a YA Epic Fantasy, but also have adult books and other genres in the works, in addition to one musical libretto.

I like singing, dancing, stabbing people (fencing), chocolate, writing, reading and now rowing.

I have a deep and profound fascination with swords and daggers, which probably why my beast of an epic contains a lot of swords, but not all that much sorcery.

Uhm... I don't really know what else to tell you, except to say that I'm really happy that you're here.

Who else joined the Campaign? In which groups are you?

Guest Post Friday: Golden Eagle

2012-02-10T01:30:00.000+02:00

Hi all! For today's GPF, I welcome (again) Golden Eagle. She's one of my favorite bloggers out there, so her advice is well worth reading today. ;-) Take it away, Golden.

First, thank you so much for having me today, Misha! It’s an honor to be here at My First Book.

When I started blogging, I didn’t know that there were writing blogs—nor did I have any idea that it was considered common for a writer to have a blog and/or a social media platform. It was only after several months of blogging and trying to find some kind of niche that I stumbled upon a popular writing blog. It started snowballing from there, and now the great majority of the sites I follow are written by writers.

Personally, I’m glad I found that writing blog back when The Eagle’s Aerial Perspective was still relatively new to the blogosphere. Other writers are a great source of encouragement and traveling companions along the path from first draft to finished novel (whether published or not). Blogging is also excellent for doing something with words that doesn’t involve a novel—everyone needs a break from their projects now and then—while also challenging you to produce content on varying schedules, depending on your style.

Furthermore, blogs are good places to learn. Everyone is moving along with their own goals and ideas, their own failures and successes, and it’s likely that someone somewhere has tried what you’re planning to do. It’s easy to find advice, help, or even just similar circumstances by rifling through someone’s archives or even using a search engine—and if the exact thing you’re looking for doesn’t exist yet, most people (I’ve found) are willing to share what they’ve experienced. Or you can strike out on your own and chronicle your adventures through your own posts, which is always interesting and helpful for readers.

And finally? Another benefit to the online writer community is that it is online. I’m very introverted in person—I don’t like to say much and I don’t really enjoy small talk. However, unlike good old Real Life, when it comes to blog posts there’s time to think about responding and no need for immediate, constant feedback. With my own posts, I find that there’s much more room for exploring a topic than there usually is in person. Other important or interesting things can be saved or bookmarked to be revisited later, and if something strikes you as particularly good, it’s easy to link to content to share with everyone else you know virtually.

The blogosphere is a fascinating, ever-changing place. Whether blogs will still be as popular in ten years (or even just a few) is unknown, but for the moment, I’d definitely recommend branching out into it—even if you aren’t a writer, though writers have a lot to gain. There’s a great community in this corner of the web.

Thanks so much for visiting, Golden. Anyone else who wants to do a GPF post, please check here for details.

Anyone have any tips for beginning bloggers?

Tara Maya on When Ideas Make Love

2012-02-09T14:07:00.001+02:00

Hi all! I'm finally back on my own blog, but today I'm welcoming Tara Maya to MFB. Tara is the author of the Unfinished song series, which is available at Amazon here, here and here.

When Ideas Make Love

Recently I heard of the notion that progress is made when ideas make love.

This is true of ideas in writing as well.

One of the dangers in writing—any kind of writing, but, I fear, especially genre writing—is that you will settle for a cliché instead of a fresh idea. Orson Scott Card once warned that when you brainstorm for a new idea, the first couple that pop into your head are going to be clichés. Cliches are the low-hanging fruit of the archetypal world. In his example, he would ask a class of science fiction writers to design a race of aliens. Inevitably, in class after class, the first few “aliens” suggested would be reptilian or dog-based or cat-based…each class churned up the same tired ideas unless challenged to step past that first easy, over-obvious thought. Lazy thinking leads to stale writing.

One trick to overcome this is to mate two unrelated images. Let us say you have a story about three soldiers trying to make their way home after a war. You might allude to an archetypal antecedent such as the Odyssey, which is also about a warrior trying to make his way home after a war. Adhere to this too closely, and you’d just have a retelling of the Odyssey—which is fine if that’s what you want, but let’s assume you don’t want it that close. So maybe you also throw in an homage to the Zodiac. Your hero’s journey takes a year and in each month he encounters a monster or obstacle related to the astrological sign of that month. This is pretty absurd, but that’s what makes it work—especially if your story has nothing to do with the Zodiac. It’s not something you need, or want, to make obvious. You don’t have the hero say, “It’s time to meet the Embodiment of Pisces.” What I’m talking about is not the overt mythology or world-building in your story, but just the opposite. I’m talking about taking a wild card and throwing it in the mix.

What does this do? It forces your creative mind to get off the easy road of cliché and go to work. “Hm,” you think, “In Yawning Moon month, they should meet a element related to a fish. But they are traveling through a desert. How are they going to meet a fish? Hey, what if they come to a temple built from the fossils an ancient marine sea monster….” Until that moment, you might not have realized that there was a temple built from fossils in the desert!

You can use this technique for deepening characters too. It can help to have secret totems for your characters. These are metaphors that you don’t share directly with your readers, only indirectly. For instance, if you character is a were-elephant, that’s not a secret totem. You share that with the readers openly. But you might have a character who is not a were-elephant or directly related to elephants in any way, who is nonetheless elephant-like in mannerisms or body-build, etc. I’m not even sure what the distinctive mannerisms of an elephant are, but again, the point is that this absurd metaphor forces you to think about your character in an unexpected way, and you discover things about him that you didn’t know.

Some people will say, “Don’t use dragons,” “Don’t use vampires” or “Don’t use elves” because these are over done. I don’t agree. I think that such archetypes can still offer fresh and wonderful stories, if you shake off clichés and continually surprise readers. When you use this technique, you surprise yourself with what you come up with. If you, the author, are surprised by the twists in the story, chances are the readers will be too—surprised and delighted.

Thanks so much for the great guest post, Tara. So all, do you mix seemingly unrelated ideas to freshen up your writing?

I'm Meandering in a Field of Words

2012-02-07T14:17:00.000+02:00

Just when you thought I'd be back, I'm here to tell you I'm at Jenna Quentin's blog for another guest post. Hope to see you there. :-D

I'm at My Literary Jam and Toast Today

2012-02-06T16:22:00.001+02:00

Hi all! Today I'm at Mia Hayson's blog, so I'd greatly appreciate it if you went over to say hi. :-)

Guest Post Friday: Jade Hart

2012-02-03T13:30:00.000+02:00

Hi all! Today I welcome Jade to MFB. Jade is one of my newer followers and writes YA. She now lives in New Zealand after pretty much living everywhere else.

Writing Relationships

First, a huge thank you to Misha for letting me grace her blog for the day J

My post for her Friday Guest Post is on: Writing Relationships.

Okay, so we all know you can’t exactly write a story without relationships trickling in there in some way or other, and the best thing about writing is you can write whatever you please. Any story, any character, and spice it up with any relationship you feel like. J With that in mind, I love relationships that don’t have the typical resolution you would expect. For instance: The love hate relationship between a rival sibling. The forbidden wanting for your best friend’s husband ( no that isn’t from personal experience! lol ), or falling in love with a murderer and having your moral obligations conflicting with your heart. (Again, not personal experience!)Each one opens so many avenues to passion, confusion and ultimately an excellent story.

Some points for writing believable relationships are:

1. Give us a conflict. Something that is either heart-wrenching or subtle. A catalyst to why your MC is feeling those things in the first place.

2. Build the emotion of your MC. Racing heart, palms pooling with sweat, confusion fogging their concentration. Just by describing their physical reactions you can build the type of relationship the MC is leaning toward.

3. Have the situation build until a climax is inevitable, and then twist it in a way the reader was not expecting.

4. Give the relationship believable roots. If it’s a love relationship why do they fall in love? What wins the MC over or bring them together so intensely? If it’s a dangerous relationship between kidnapper and kidnappee, have a believable reason WHY they were kidnapped and why the stakes are so high. There’s nothing worse than having great chemistry in your book, but not based on any real reasoning as to why that relationship exists.

Writing relationships between your MC's is one of the hardest things to get right. You can get the scenery, descriptions and plot down to perfection, but if the chemistry is lacking then it will always fall flat.

I personally find writing about personal experiences is the best way to get solid feeling in a MS. So if I could pass on any advice – that would be it. Use your own feelings and relationships as a trampoline to your MC’s own trials and tribulations.
Thanks again to Misha for letting me write all over her blog. You're awesome and I highly encourage everyone to follow her wicked cool blog :)

Thank you again for this great post, Jade. If anyone else wants to take part in GPF, please see this post. February is full, but the last four weeks of March (theme: How We Write) are still available.

Have a great weekend! But before you go, please tell me: What is your favorite sort of relationship to read/write?

A short post about doing nothing.

2012-02-02T13:23:00.000+02:00

I must say, this is a nice change. I sent in some more work to be critiqued, so now I'm sort of stuck with nothing to do.

I could probably go on with the sequel, but I just didn't feel like it today. So... instead of worrying and moping about the fact, I decided to take the day to catch up on some blogs that I've been meaning to visit.

It works doubly as well because of the fact that my day is sliced in little bits and pieces.

Still, that doesn't mean that I'm avoiding everything writing related. No, today I finally get to have that meeting about the libretto that I'm supposed to write. So hopefully I'll be able to start with it very soon.

What are you doing today? Anyone else being as lazy as me?

Insecure Writer's Support Group

2012-02-01T15:09:00.002+02:00

Today is my first ever post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, which is aimed to air insecurities and to support other neurotic writers.

It's actually really fitting that today is my first foray into Insecure Writing territory, because something happened to me this morning that actually falls neatly with the purposes of this group.

I was happily going along, minding my business, opening my MS to edit when it hit me.

Right over the noise in my head. Over the clamor between my characters, my muse and my internal editor. My inner critic woke up from her hibernation and spoke.

"What are you doing?"

And all went silent.

Then she really got started.

"What are you doing? Sitting day in and day out, working on perfecting your WiP. You can fix everything you see now and your CPs will still find more things that are wrong. You could spend the rest of your life writing stories that will go unappreciated because they might not even sell." and on and on and on. Every little statement felt like a whip to my back, drawing blood and draining my courage to face my long line of mistakes.

I sat there, staring blankly at my document, trying to find my balance when one of my Doorways characters, Darrion, spoke up:

"Don't be an idiot. Of course my story is full of errors. That's why you're editing. And of course your CPs will find problems. It's the reason you have them read your work. Now stop whining and get going. The story isn't going to edit itself. Now... if you'll excuse me."

Then he kindly beat my inner critic up before gagging her, chaining her and hanging her upside-down in a very obscure corner of my mind.

Obviously, his bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired, but he has a valid point. There's nothing wrong with having something wrong in your writing. At least you found it and can fix it. Same with getting a long list of suggested edits back. It means that there are still ways to improve. We should only panic when our writing sucks and we don't know how to fix it. And even then, it only takes a bit of elbow grease.

Do you have one character who takes care of your inner critic for you? How do you handle doubts when they appear?

Others have said: Writing takes passion.

2012-01-31T14:55:00.000+02:00

Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.

Rainer Maria Rilke

There are few things that I consider to be rules in writing. As far as I can see, any method goes, as long as one gets the work written. And that's why I consider this to be a rule, because without it, I don't think someone can finish a project.

My rule: One must have passion for writing.

I'm sure that a lot of non-writers will look at the rule and think that I'm stupid. After all, anyone can write anything down. At any moment. That's probably why so few people understand the challenges involved in writing a story. So many people write (correspondence, statements, reports etc.) that they think that all writing is as easy. It isn't.

On the contrary, it's damnably hard more often than not. And NOTHING prepares you for the challenges of writing a novel, except for writing a novel. Because, while most people write more than 50k words in e-mails etc. in (say) a few months, it isn't meant to be read as a single understandable story. There's no need to develop a thrilling plot, there's no need to create and get to know characters. There's no need to stick with the exact same story for as long as it takes to finish it.

Writing is full of challenges, rejections and other obstacles. It takes sacrifice. Especially of time. Writing isn't something to do in a few weeks without noticing. It's something that needs to be prioritized.

So many people say that they want to write but don't have time... Well, I can safely say that none of us writers have time. We make it. We put writing way up there on our lists of priorities, with family, God and breathing.

If it wasn't for that commitment, no story would ever be finished.

Anyone disagree with me? Why or why not? How high is writing on your list of priorities? Do you find that a shift or writing up or down your priority list influences your writing?

Guest Post Friday: Julie Flanders

2012-01-27T13:12:00.000+02:00

Hi all! Today I welcome Julie to MFB. Julie is a writer of one of the earliest blogs I've followed. From the first time I went there, I loved her blog (and her) for her passion both for writing and for animals.

Take it away, Julie.

Thanks so much, Misha, for hosting metoday. I was attracted to the theme of beginnings as I am a new writer myself,and I hope that sharing my own “beginning” may be an inspiration to others whofind themselves in similar situations.

My writing beginning came about at an age whenmany people are getting serious about planning for retirement. I'd neverworried much about age before, but that changed when I turned 40. At a timewhen society says we are supposed to be happily settled and basking in the rewardsof middle-age, I found myself feeling lost and unfulfilled, and wondering whaton earth I could do to change what looked like a dull and uninspiring future.

I felt like I'd hit a low point, and I madethe decision that I was going to make changes. I had no idea what those changeswere going to be but, somehow, just making the decision felt like a step in theright direction.

I started reading all kinds of self-helpbooks, but I quickly realized that I was simply reading as a means of puttingoff actually doing something. The reading was easy. The doing was the scarypart.

Finally, I sat down and thought about whatit was that I enjoyed doing. The answer came easily. From the time I was inschool, the one thing I had always felt confident about, and had brought mepleasure, was writing. Whether writing papers for classes, writing letters, orwriting academic articles as a librarian, I enjoyed all of it. In addition,since childhood I had loved constructing stories in my head about characters Isaw on tv or read about in books. I never wrote them down; as I thought writingstories was something creative people did. And I wasn't creative.

If there was one skill I had mastered in life,it was saying “I can't,” or “I'm not.” Now that I had reached this low point, Ithought I had nothing to lose by trying “I can” and “I am” on for size. Ifnothing else, I resolved to say “I'll try.”

My opportunity to put my words into actioncame about in a completely unexpected way. I discovered a show called Dog Town, whichwas about dogs at Best Friends, an animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah.I fell in love with the place, and looked up their website. To my surprise, Ifound a listing for volunteer writers for their site. On a whim, I submitted anapplication.

Before too long, I had my first assignment,and wrote about people in Floridawho had come to the aid of starving and neglected cats. I was so nervous when Isubmitted my article that I was afraid to open the response from the editor.But I had no reason to be afraid, as the feedback I received was overwhelminglypositive.

I felt buoyed in a way I never had whiledoing my “real” work. I wrote more articles, and continued to get wonderfulfeedback from both editors and readers alike. In addition, I was thrilled to becontributing to a cause I cared about, and helping both people I admired andanimals I loved.

Suddenly, being a writer didn't seem likesomething I couldn't do any more. I went from “I'll try” to “What if?” What ifI branched out and wrote for other outlets? What if I could actually get paidfor doing this?

“What if?” became “I will,” and that was mybeginning. Now nearly two years later, I feel like I've finally found thepassion and sense of fulfillment I'd been missing for so long. And even though Istill have a long way to go to be able to support myself with writing, thesmall amount of money I have made has been worth its weight in gold. What'smore, the personal rewards have enriched my life in a way no amount of moneyever could.

So my advice to would-be writers is simple.Begin. No matter your age or experience, there’s never a wrong time to getstarted. It may seem frightening, but take that first step. Volunteer, write ablog, or sit down and start that novel you’ve always wanted to write.

The step you take is up to you. Theimportant thing is to begin.

Thanks so much for this inspiring post, Julie. What about you ladies and gents? When did you start writing?

Also, I need a hero/heroine to please step up to the plate. On 10 February, there is no one to do a GPF post. *gasp* It's a terrible thing, because then everyone will be subjected to my ramblings on a Friday! Surely no one want that!

So please please please (with awesomesauce on top) contact me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com and let me know that you'll do a post for me.

Have a great weekend!

Oh look! An interruption!

2012-01-26T18:41:00.000+02:00

Today was one of those days. You know, where you start with the best of intentions to be productive, only to end up... well... not.

I even woke up an hour early today, but I swear there were time-gremlins in the house.

Of course, I did get other stuff done, like cleaning house, editing a business plan and checking up on financials. The last two were the main time-sucks, but hey, variety is good.

Today I got to give my left brain a stretch... or something like that.

In the mean time, I managed to do a bit of editing to Part 4 and send Part 3 off to a second round of crits. So all things considered, I didn't do too badly edit-wise. On the other hand, it's a crawl compared to what I'm used to.

BUT! I decided to cut down on my computer/editing time, as last week I clocked about 13-16 hour editing days. Which is sort of ridiculous, when one considers that I have more than five months left to finish Doorways. Point is, it isn't healthy.

Maybe today is a good cue for me to kick back a little and finish Persuasion. Yes, I am only on my second Jane Austen book. Yes. Still. What can I say? My characters called open season on regency period ladies and gents... ;-P

What do you do to chill out when your editing/writing revs go into the red?

Key-Word Cavalry: Help writing my first book.

2012-01-25T18:04:00.000+02:00

So... when I saw that phrase among my key phrases, I was stumped.

Where would I begin to explain how to finish someone's first book? After all, everyone's writing method is a little different.

But I will not be scared off by this. No. I'm made out of sterner stuff.

The first bit of advice I can give you is this:

Get THIS muse.
Source

Failing that, the best thing I can tell you to do is something that you might really get tired of hearing:

Keep writing.

If your story sucks and you find it isn't worth your time, leave it alone and start something else. But don't do that forever. At some point, something will be worth your time and when the going gets tough, you have to keep going.

All the way.

For as long as it takes.

Then... I strongly suggest that you play around until you find a method that works for you. Feel like plotting kills your story's soul, try pantsing. Think that waiting for your muse sucks, try enticing her/him with cookies. Whatever works. As long as you write. Except in limited circumstances, procrastination is never a good idea.

But if you block, and writing through it doesn't work, leave your project alone until the doldrums go away. If they don't, go back to your writing desk and write nonsense until they do.

For the love of all that is holy, DON'T write to trends. Trends change before you can publish. And if you're writing without passion, you won't produce anything good enough to change the trends back again.

Finally: Never be afraid to explore an idea, even if you think it's small or stupid. Because that idea might just be the right one that stirs enough passion for you to want to stick through the story.

What does it take for you to finish your story?

Why I write YA.

2012-01-24T19:08:00.000+02:00

As the badge to the left shows, I've signed up to do S.A. Larsen's Young Adult Teen Tuesday.

Although I won't be doing this every week, Tuesdays will be when I discuss all things YA related. Which of course is a bit like cheating for me, because I mainly write YA.

But then, I've always been a fan of leeway. ;-)

So... there are more than a few things that I'm wondering about YA, so I'll probably get around to it eventually, but for today, I think the Why I Write post is a good idea.

Why do I write YA? It's actually a question that I have asked more than once since I started Doorways. See... when I saw my one main character and he got me considering the idea, I thought I'd write a modern Chronicles of Narnia.

Within a few days though, I realized my mistake. See... the character who inspired me is... well... Not standard hero material. Nor, for that matter, is he standard brooding hottie material.

Oh no, don't get me wrong. He broods. He's hot. He's heroic. When he wants to be. Which is interesting because more often than not, he doesn't give a...

Also... he grew up in a pretty much medieval world. So... eighteen is plenty old to do certain things. Certain things that puts Doorways in a very interesting situation where it's YA, but for older audiences. Doorways itself isn't that bad, but the rest of the series will definitely push limits of what a lot of people consider to be "rules".

But you know what? I decided to be brave and write it anyway. Because it's a damn good story. Even if I say so myself. And the characters are awesome. And they happen to be teenagers.

So, I guess I could post about how I want to influence young minds (uh... optimistic), or how I love the possibilities of coming of age (I do), or how it's an interesting market to be in (don't care). Instead, I'd say I write YA because my biggest story idea is YA. And because my inspiring character holds my mind hostage and only characters with guns and wicked cool super powers survive in my thoughts with him guarding them. Sounds like I'm complaining, but then, there are worse things than having a hot guy cruising around in my imaginary world. Much much worse things.

Do you write YA? Why or why not?

Others have said: Don't sweat it. You can fix it later.

2012-01-23T14:12:00.000+02:00

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the 1st time unlike, say, brain surgery.

Robert Cormier

I've been creating stories since before I could write. At first I play-acted everything, but as I grew older, I started finding ways to put my thoughts onto a piece of paper.

The first time I tried to write something was a movie script that I started aged (about) eleven. By the time I was thirteen, I saw myself as seriously writing. I had started my first novel then.

One would think that I'd have a ton of finished manuscripts collecting dust beneath my bed. Terrible ones. Ones that make me cringe to think of. Ones that I aim at when I kick my shoes off.

But no. In the eight years from starting to write to Doorways, I didn't finish a single manuscript. Not one. Now, this happened for a variety of reasons (that I posted about VERY early along when I started blogging), but as I came to the point of deciding that Doorways was to be the one that I finished, I decided to do some introspection.

What really stopped me from finishing before? Sure, the fact that my mother forgot to ask me before ripping the motherboard out of my writing computer (it happened) or the destroyed stiffy disk that contained the only copy of my draft (yes. stiffy. yes. It happened. After I rewrote the mother board ms), or the fact that I willingly burned a ms and everything connected to it (yes. Did that two years before I started the blog) had something to do with it.

But that wasn't what stopped me. I mean, yes those put some significant delays on my writing. But eight years worth? Really?

The truth was no. The only person that held me back was me. See, although I don't have a thing for rules, I was obsessed with getting everything I wrote up to my standards. Immediately.

So instead of worrying about getting done, I got mired in the early chapters of my WiPs, tinkering with every word I just wrote until it was exactly right.

In other words, I'd taken the soul out of what I'd written before it got a chance to settle into what it's supposed to be.

When I realized what had happened, I'd decided to do a bit of a mind-shift. I didn't have to get everything right immediately. In fact, there's something to be said for working all the way through first before going back to measure what should be changed and what should stay the same.

Which is why I drafted Doorways by hand. If it's written in pen, it can't be change until I'm ready to go back to change it. And that is probably one reason why I got so far with it at all.

I gave Doorways a chance to prove to me that it was worth my time, instead of killing it before it was really born.

So what about you? Do you edit as you write or do you finish your drafts first?

Guest Post Friday: Denise Gabbard

2012-01-20T14:05:00.000+02:00

Use these 5 Rock StarHeadline Ideas when you begin your Blog

The average reader only gets past the headline of anarticle or blog post 20% of the time. Mediocre headlines doom a blog tofailure, even when coupled with amazing content. However, there are ways tochange that! These tips will help you write blog titles that will get people toread your posts.

The most important thing when it comes to blogheadlines is to get the reader’s attention. Titles like these will areinteresting, and compel people to find out what important tidbits areincluded.

· 9 BestPractices for Bloggers

· DoMore Writing in Less Time

· Secretsto Making Fistfuls of Cash

· InstantFixes for Boring Blog Posts

Can you see how these headlines offer something ofvalue to a blogger, and would compel them to read the post? When people see what’sin it for them (WIIFM) they stop and take notice. Your job then, as a writer,is to tell them why they MUST read your post.

Go BOLD!

Contradict something that most people believe to betrue. Readers will be curious to read the post and find out why you would saysomething that is the polar opposite of common knowledge.

· You DoNot Want to Vacation in Florida

· BloggingToday: Why Content Writing is Dead

· BigBanks say that Main Street Caused the Recession

Would you be interested in reading those posts andfinding out what they had to say? I sure would.

Bare yoursoul:

By humanizing yourself with a confession ortelling a secret, you make yourself more likable and friendly. Readers willfeel they are among friends, and will respond accordingly, with honest feedbackand comments.

· I have a Confession to Make; Writing does NOTCome Easy to Me

· Three Things Even Top Bloggers Struggle With

· Psst! Inside Secrets to Drive Massive Trafficto Your Blog

Question….Everything?

People discuss everything on social mediathese days, from how to discipline children to helping their husband witherectile dysfunction. Pay attention to main themes people are talking about,and capitalize on it.

· Does Self-Publishing make it More Difficultfor Writers?

· What will happen if SOPA or PIPA pass inWashington?

· Is Blogging and Social Media ParticipationOptional for Companies Today?

Make aPromise

Letting your readers know that you willanswer a tough problem or question for them in your post will draw them in.Leave a little mystery, and keep them guessing.

· I have Got Some Awesome Ideas…

· 2012 is going to be the Best Year Ever!

· Why only 10% of Blogs are Successful

Make themTake Sides

Point out differences without taking sidesyourself, and just wait for the discussion that ensues.

· Republican Tax Cuts; Extra Cash for theirBank Accounts or Job Creation Tool?

· “RoundUp” Posts: Valuable Information forYour Readers, or Lazy Way to Get out of Writing?

· Traditional vs. Self Publishing: Which Way isBest?

Thoughthis is not an exhaustive list of how to build the best titles, I think it willgive you a few ideas of your own. What is the best blog title you ever wrote?How did it affect the number of comments your post got? Did it create anydiscussion on your blog?

Denise Gabbard is a Writerand Blogger. She writes the blog Write and Get Paid, and is currentlycompleting her book “How to Write and Get Paid.” Witha focus on internet and digital media, it will be a comprehensive manual fornew and experienced writers.

Thanks so much, Denise! I'm definitely going to use your pointers for my headlines from now on.

I still have many GPF slots open, so please check out this post for details on how to book one.

Have a great weekend!

Yes, I am absent.

2012-01-19T21:14:00.002+02:00

I'm terrible this week, I know.

But at least this post is here to inform you that I'm not neglecting my blog. I'm only trying not to post nonsense.

Why would I post nonsense, you might ask. Well, because I only slept four hours last night because of the heat. The same heat that is choking my braincells right now.

So, tomorrow I'll be back with another GPF post. See you then! X

Key-word Cavalry: Writing Quiet Characters

2012-01-18T17:31:00.000+02:00

For those of you that missed last week, the last three Wednesdays of every month will be taken up by Key-Word Cavalry, my attempt to answer the writing related key-words that lead people to my blog but that I don't think have received due attention from me.

So today's key-phrase: Writing Quiet Characters.

Master of the Quirky Quiet Characters: John Malkovich

For all my life, I've had two specific types of characters that I loved most. First would be the bad-ass. The second would be the Quiet One.

Both are awesome for different reasons, but in every movie with a Quiet Character, I've always been intrigued by one. After all. Their silence implies something. Something mysterious. Something awesome. And we want to know.

There's a depth to them, since they're the guys who have to put up with living in their noisier (and often stupider) companion's shadow. Usually the noisy one would fail to function if the Quiet One were to be removed from the equasion.

Makes for some excellent entertainment. So of course, when I started writing Doorways I was excited to know that one of my main characters is a Quiet One.

Little did I know what a pain he could be to write.

See, in the movies, we're constantly aware of his presence because we see him. Those moments that the camera focuses on him can be some of the most significant ones in the entire film.

In books, the reader can't see him. Not unless they're constantly reminded he's there. Of course, I had the luck that his Noisy One needs and resents his presence at the same time. So if your quiet guy isn't going to be the only main character, or if his noisy friend isn't motivated to stay aware of him, I urge you to find a noisier replacement.

Still, the heart wants what the heart wants, so here are a few things to remember when writing a Quiet Character. (From own experience, so by all means, experiment. I'd love to know how it went.)

1) The character can never be completely quiet. Complete silence does not translate well to writing, unless we get to hear the character's thoughts all the time.
2) There has to be a reason for his being there. Otherwise, the other characters in your cast will have to drag him along through the whole story. And as we all know, we cut the dragging bits out of our writing.
3) Strength. Presence. Conflict. Tension. He can maybe have two of these four characteristics missing. Any more, and we have ourselves a persona non grata. Someone who the readers will skip over when they encounter him. And it's easy. Because he doesn't have all that much to read about.
4) Something's gotta give at some point. We the readers have to see him come into his own at some point. He has to get his voice, his moment.
5) For heaven's sake. Let us see his reactions at some point. Don't have him mutely follow everything he's been told every time. Or let him, but let him be angry if it's something he doesn't want to do. He's quiet, not emotionless or stupid.

Do you have a Quiet One in your story? How do you keep him from vanishing between the furniture?

I close this with the image of my favorite Quiet One. Yes he talks, but only because his subordinates don't understand sign language.

Gibbs. Enough said.

Others have said: Just write.

2012-01-16T12:47:00.001+02:00

Don't get it right, just get it written.

James Thurber

If I had a cent for every new writer I find who is overwhelmed by all the "rules" and "prescribed methods" to good writing, I'd be on my way to Tuscany by now.

The Internet is a wonderful place, and the blogosphere a treasure trove of knowledge and advice on writing. I love it. But I was lucky. I had too much of a confidence in my own abilities to be overwhelmed.

Why? Because I've written for about eight years before I decided to take the plunge and start a writing blog. So by the time I started nosing around the blogs, I already knew what worked for me and what didn't. I already knew where my writing needed help.

I knew that if I had conflicting pieces of advice, that I'd be able to pick the one that works best with me and the way that I write.

But note the words: FOR ME.

If everyone writes according to the way that works best for them, is there really a right way to write?

Short answer: No. The only way to write is your way.

Sure, you can take advice. If it works for you. You can deviate from the "rules", if you're willing to stand firm in the belief that you did the right thing.

Writing isn't about writing to a set form. If it was, every book would be the same. Who'd want that? Especially if it's a book you wouldn't like?

So, while it is excellent to see what options are out there (and I've seen some brilliant suggestions that I never would have thought about), don't sacrifice your own writer's identity in order to implement them.

Forget about being right. Get that story written, by any means possible.

What's your favorite writing "rule" or "best practice" to break?

Guest Post Friday: Madeleine Maddocks

2012-01-13T14:13:00.000+02:00

Hi all! Today I welcome Madeleine Maddocks to My First Book as the first GPF guest. Her blog is always one where I stop whenever I need inspiration for poetry and prose, but she also has some other great tips to inspire writers. Thanks so much for being my first brave soul, Madeleine.

My thanks to Misha for letting me guest post on her blog today.

My subject is very apt for January: Beginning.

For Flash Fiction, Haiku and Blogfests I enjoy the picture and word prompts that blog hosts provide. For me it creates a challenge / a beginning from which my own writing can mature and grow. Having created my blog in Aug 2010 I feel that it has certainly been a great start for allowing me to gain feedback and practice in these different genres.

What creates that initial spark that leads you to put pen to paper?

Is it always the same way each time?

Or do you use different stimuli to find your material?

Thanks again, Madeleine! For those of you who still want to sign up, January's full, but the rest of the year is mostly open. Please see here for details.

Forwards or backwards?

2012-01-12T15:01:00.000+02:00

Source

While I waited for feedback on Part 2 of Doorways, I started working ahead to fix whatever looked glaringly obvious, thinking that it would keep me busy until then.

Except I got into my first ever editing zone.

Think I'm kidding?

I started page 91 on 30 December. I finished the last page (550) yesterday. So twelve days to edit over 400 pages.

On one of those days, I edited well over 100 pages, but then had to stop because I made a nasty discovery (but that's a guest post, so I'm not going to go into it now).

So yeah. I'm a little shocked at myself.

But here I am. I don't really want to leave my Doorways universe, since I don't want anything to distract me from the edits.

And yet I really really really want to do something more than put together soundtracks for the sequels (as they drive me insane every time a song gives me a plot insight).

Basically, it leaves me with two options:

I can start with the sequel. Sounds wonderful and intriguing at the same time. But, I do want to trad publish. Which means that I might have to put Doorways through significant revisions before it's truly finished. Those revisions will have an effect on all of the sequels. I know, because that's the way I wrote the ms.

On the other hand, I can actually write a prequel. Something that influences Doorways, but won't necessarily be edited and therefore I can have a blast with it. BUT... the prequel can be extensive. So will I be wasting my time to write it?

What do you think?

Key-Word Cavalry: Plot twists that everyone loves.

2012-01-11T14:08:00.001+02:00

Due to a variety of reasons (and probably because the google gremlins like me), my blog usually shows up very high in most writing-related searches. Some others too, but that's not the point.

Most of the blogging related key-words do have some answers somewhere in the bowls of this blog, but a few of them slip through the cracks. Or they don't get their due attention from me.

Because of that, I'm getting into the habit of checking the key-words every week and see if I can answer the implied questions every Wednesday except for the first one of every month. I might even invite others to join my war on writing ignorance soon, but for today, I'll fight alone.

So!

It's harder when writing.

Plot twists that everyone loves. Now the idea that I get from the phrase is that whoever did this search wants a list that he/she can throw into his/her story at random to get an exciting and lovable manuscript.

Uhm... sadly, my deluded lost one, I have to say that there is no such list. Even if it did, do you really want to chuck in all sorts of popular (and most likely hackneyed) twist into your story?

Don't say yes.

In order to have plot twists that everyone loves, you need to create them in a way that everyone will love.

How are you supposed to do that?

Firstly, by constructing your story well enough to carry the twist without stressing the reader's suspension of disbelief too far. The secret to this is in lying the foundation early on. NOTHING annoys a reader as much as Deus ex Machina (the appearence of a plot solution out of thin air) in any story, so make sure that every twist you write in has its origins in some point earlier on.

Long lost uncles and aunts no longer cut it. Nor does a twist born out of existent roots but insufficient detail. I'm looking at you, Master Crime Writer Who Annoys the Crap Out of Me.

Yes, your main characters are allowed to be super smart or almost invincible (although, where's the fun in that?), but panning away from the character's view point in order to maximize suspense and then have him/her save the day without us being there to see it happen, is a cop-out.

And no one likes a cop-out. Look out for variations of these words in your manuscript: "It happened like this..." "It was as simple as...", "The villain thought this, but in reality..."

If you really want a plot twist that everyone loves, make sure that there are ample subtle hints that the twist is possible throughout the story (no, I can't stress this enough). Then distract the reader from it so that they don't think about it until it happens. When it comes to a plot twist, the reader reaction you should always strive for is as follows:

1) What?!
2) How?!
3) Oh! I should have seen this coming.

Less than this is acceptable, but mediocre. Less than this will have readers liking/tolerating your twist, but not loving it.

What say you, writing friends? How does one create plot twists that everyone loves?

What I've Learnt from Northanger Abbey

2012-01-10T18:31:00.000+02:00

This took me a while longer than Saturday for me to finish Northanger Abbey than expected. See, usually I take about half a day to finish 130 pages.

This took me four days. Why?

Well (and I'm sorry, Miss Austen) I didn't like it.

I managed to get through it by appreciating it like a fine piece of art. Even if I don't like it, I can see the thought that went into it. I know that it the book thirteen years to be published. In fact, it didn't see the light of day until after Jane Austen died. So I saw the story through because of my sympathy for her.

Still, it wasn't the worst book that I ever read. It just wasn't the best, either. In fact, I had trouble pinning it down at all, which of course complicated this post a little, since I'm supposed to be writing what I've learnt from reading it.

Still, there are a few things that I did learn.

1) A good narrative voice can go a long way to compensate for annoying main characters. I'm sorry that I have to say this, but I found Catherine Morland to be much too silly to my tastes. The only reason why I was able to sit through the rest of the story was the narrative voice in the story, which had a wry wit that I enjoyed.
2) Although it's always fun to mock and comment on aspects of your times, building a book around it is a risky thing to do. Northanger Abbey was written to make fun of (in particular) Gothic Novels from the time in which Jane Austen lived. While I enjoyed this aspect to it, the story wasn't all that relevant to me, since we've got new things to mock. Sadly, once the burlesque aspect to the story is disregarded, there isn't much left to enjoy. In fact, most of the rest of it is mostly telling in order to move the story on to the next important lesson.
3) Showing goes a long way. Period. If there was a bit more this, I wouldn't have had to depend on the superficial impression created for me about Catherine that led to me disliking her because I couldn't connect with her on a deeper level.

So yes, this isn't the most positive post about a classic that I've ever written, but it is what I felt and what I learnt and I don't regret having read Northanger Abbey. Now at least there was one more book to cross off my TBR list.

Have you read Northanger Abbey? What did you think about it?

This post was written as part of Jane Austen January. Next book: Persuasion.

Others have said: Life can suck, but can't defeat us.

2012-01-09T13:30:00.000+02:00

Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death - fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, constant.

Edna Ferber, A Kind of Magic, 1963

I am willing to say this now. Compared to 90% of my life thus far, 2011 sucked. Big time.

This isn't going to be a moaning and groaning sort of post, but suffice it to say that I've been thwarted, frustrated, scared, terrified, down, stuck, set adrift, disappointed, lifted to soaring heights only to be dropped at the worst possible moment.

I've been told I'm too overqualified, underqualified, inexperienced, deluded, irresponsible when I was only being different, wrong.

I've been forced to play the waiting game more times than I even want to count.

In 2011, I was also probably the happiest I've been in years. Because I dug deep and really got to know myself. I know now that I have a reserve of strength that I'd thought had been lost three years ago.

Also, I got to write almost every day that I wanted to. And that helped. Because with every day that I wrote, I could take a step back from my life and see where I was and that, suck as it might, life wasn't big enough to squash me.

I could keep going and because of that, I'm much stronger and (theoretically) more patient. And relaxed, because the added perspective showed me some things about myself that helped me to deal with a lot of nonsense that I've been carrying about for years.

So yes. Life was my lover last year, even if he was a pain in the ass. He taught me a lot. And I can't wait to see where he leads me this year.

How is your life treating you? What did you learn last year?

Guest Post Friday is back

2012-01-06T11:15:00.002+02:00

I've been thinking about this for a while now, but I think Guest Post Friday was too much fun to let go of after just one measly year.

So, since this is my blog and you'll love me anyway, I'm doing Guest Post Friday again. But this year I'm going to do it a bit differently. I'm going to give themes a whirl.

It will work like this: I'm going to list all of my themes by month and if one grabs your fancy, book the date. I think it's going to be a lot of fun to see what you ladies and gents do with the themes.

And here they are:

January: Beginning
February: Relationships
March: How we write
April: A-Z Challenge (Title must correspond with the assigned letter - To Be Announced)
May: Character
June: Querying and Submission
July: Inspired
August: Challenged
September: Self Publishing and Marketing
October: Scares
November: Keeping track

Basic rules of Guest Post Friday:

1) Guest Posters (unless I invite them) MUST follow my blog. Guest Post Friday is about giving other writer/book bloggers exposure to my readers, but it's not about getting a quick follower fix.
2) I reserve the right to accept or decline the posts.
3) Guest Posters are requested to respond to comments addressed to them. (Not for all time, but for a few days after the post is put up.)
4) Topics must fall in the writing/lit industry category.

I now declare GPF open. I especially need a kind-hearted/brave guest to step up for next Friday. If you are interested in booking a Friday, please contact me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com with "Guest Post Friday" as subject.

I am also doing the Dusty Bookshelf Challenge

2012-01-05T14:09:00.000+02:00

Another one of my goals for 2012 is for me to read more. While that looks nice when written in my huge list of goals, I realize that I actually have to do something about it. So... what nicer incentive could there be than a reading challenge where I can win more books through the year?

My dusty bookshelf basically consists of three categories:

Books languishing on my virtual bookshelf (in order as they are on my Kindle app):

Persona by Amy Lunderman
Roughing It by Mark Twain
Lust by Mike Wells
Cassastar by Alex J. Cavanaugh (This one I feel really bad about. Started reading it in August, but my Economics got in the way. Now will be a good time for me to get it off my reading shelf on Goodreads.)
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Le Roux
Hollywood Secrets by Emma Halliday
Hollywood Scandals by Emma Halliday
A Razor Wrapped in Silk by R.N. Morris (Another one that's killing me. It was the first book I ever won since I started blogging. In fact, it's the reason why I got a Kindle App for my computer. And I haven't touched it.)
Don't Get Mad, Get Even by J.L. Campbell
In Her Name: Empire by Michael R. Hicks
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
The Devil to Pay by Maria Zannini
Tribute by J.R. Pearse Nelson
Vessel by J.R. Pearse Nelson

Books I borrowed from the library by alphabet (part of last years decision to expand my horizons):

Nightfall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg
Eve's Daughters by Lynn Austin
The Scarlet Lion by Elizabeth Chadwick
Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
Harlequin by Bernard Cornwell
Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell
(I did read B. Just kept procrastinating on the others)

Books I've been meaning to read but didn't get around too (this one might get more than a few additions yet):

Feast of the Uninvited by P.G. Du Plessis
Shakespeare
Jane Austen
George R.R. Martin

Wow. That's one grungy bookshelf. I better start working on it ASAP. Good thing I have Jane Austen January to knock four books from my list...

Which books do you have moaning at you from your TBR pile?

I'm doing Jane Austen January

2012-01-04T16:34:00.002+02:00

One of my reading goals for 2012 is reading books by Jane Austen.

I've only read Pride and Prejudice so far and I loved it, but I really want to read at least a few other books.

It was particularly fitting, then, that I found the Jane Austen January blogfest towards the end of December, because it gives me the ~~excuse~~ obligation to read at least four of her books an write about them.

Since I still refuse to do reviews on any of my blogs, I won't do that. Rather I'm going to handle the posts as What I Learnt From... posts, since I enjoyed doing it with Huck Finn.

Those posts will be up on every Saturday in January and if it's a hit, I might consider making it a weekly thing for the rest of the year. We'll see.

Anyway, there's no real sign-up involved, so I'm sure you can still join if you need the ~~excuse~~ incentive to go flirt with Mr. Darcy again...

Anyone else taking part in JAJ? Any other blogfests that I should know about?

Fresh air, fresh ideas.

2012-01-03T20:10:00.000+02:00

Source

Today, I was rearing to get going on my chores so that I could get back to my Doorways edits, but as I was driving home, I got a phone call from a friend.

He invited me and my brother to go lobster fishing with him.

Since I've never been on the open ocean before, but really wanted to, I accepted, even if I was a little sad to miss another day's worth of edits.

My regrets soon faded though, when I was on the road, riding on the back of a pickup. Something about the fresh air, the wind through my hair just got my thoughts churning out some interesting things to know about my Doorways world.

Oh those things, the power-structure was the most valuable. It's not something that I have to go into so much in Doorways, but after that, the more I know, the better.

The only mildly annoying thing about all this is the fact that I had to get sea-sick. At least I managed to keep the contents of my stomach in my stomach, but it wasn't a fun experience.

Still, I get the feeling I'll get myself out there again the first opportunity I get. A bit (OK a lot) of queasiness isn't going to scare me away from some awesome inspiration.

Ever find yourself doing something that makes you sick, but that inspires you at the same time?

Others have said: It's OK. You can take a break.

2012-01-02T18:37:00.000+02:00

Loafing is the most productive part of a writer's life.

James Norman Hall

Every now and then, I stumble across some published author's quotes about how there is no such thing as writer's block, because real writers sit for hours and write.

I don't agree.

I see myself as a real writer. It's a little hard to miss, when writing takes up such a significant portion of my thoughts. Not to mention my time.

But I get some nasty writer's blocks.

In fact I think my current record is three months of wanting to write but failing to, because the words wouldn't come.

At one time, this really bothered me, because I'm supposed to be a writer.

Until one day I realized that there's a very good reason for my blocks: there's something wrong with the story that my mind registered, but that I didn't pick up. Yes, I know that sounds really weird, but I've seen it time and again.

So what's the best way to combat a block? Some people say that you have to write through it. I'm not saying they're wrong.

But, if you've tried writing through it and only find yourself mired deeper in your block, leave the story alone. Try writing something else. If you find you can't write anything, take a break from it. Do something else.

I prefer to do something creative, but that does not take as much thought. For me that's usually drawing something related to the story with which I'm struggling. If that doesn't work, I try my best to avoid poking at the problem, so that my muse can sort out the problem in peace.

But remember not to be discouraged. Because giving up on it all together lets your mind work on something else rather than on the story.

So yes, while annoying, blocks might just be part of your writing process. In such a case, loafing really can be the most productive thing that you can do.

What about you? Do you find that you have to take a break or else you get stuck?

Officially, my goals for 2012

2011-12-30T16:00:00.000+02:00

Since this is the last Friday of the year, I thought I'd handle the New Year's admin now. If you want to see how I fared with the 2011 "guidelines", you're more than welcome to go check out my other blog, Taking Charge of My Life.

Without further ado, my goals for 2012:

Writing:

I want to finish Doorways before 30 June.

I will query Doorways on 1 July.

I want to finish the WiP2 rewrite by 30 September.

I want to finish the Don't Look Back draft by 31 December.

I want to finish at least one draft of the musical libretto by 31 December.

I might want to look at Guardian again.

Reading:

I want to read more (crit partners' manuscripts don't count).

I want to read Shakespeare, Austen and Martin.

Life:

Auditions, auditions, auditions.

I want to master at least intermediate cooking.

I want to spend more time designing.

I want to brush up on my French and Mandarin (at least one of the two) and take another language.

I want to take classes in a musical instrument. Either piano or guitar.

I also want to get out more next year. Cabin fever never did suit me.

Since I achieved four goals in 2011, I want to achieve six in 2012.

So that's me for the year. I hope you enjoyed my blog as much as I enjoyed all of yours.

Before I sign off, I just want to say cheers.

Source

2011 was more than a little bumpy, but your support made it much easier to get through the year. Here's to 2012. If it's the last one, know I wouldn't want to spend it without you. If it isn't, thank goodness, because then I'll see you for 2013.

See you on the other side. ;-)

Back Home

2011-12-29T14:43:00.001+02:00

Source

After spending about two thirds of the 27th mourning the loss of my drafts, I decided that the term my self-imposed exile from home was over.

I ran straight to the arms of my beloved characters and immersed myself in the world of my creation.

It was like a balm to my soul.

Sure, the loss hurt, but it could have been so much worse. I could have lost more than I did. As it is, I still have all of my Doorways edits, so that's what I'm going to do until I get over the worst of my pain at losing WiP2.

Now that I'm back with my first love, I almost can't believe how long I've stayed away from it. Even though I enjoy everything else that I write, I miss my characters from Doorways every moment that I'm not with them.

Sad, but true.

Anyway, I feel happier now. More at peace with what happened. Soon I will be able to look at my WiP2 rough draft without thinking of the huge space that looms after it. Then I will be able to start again, excited to know that I will be improving on what I have written.

But right now, Doorways is exactly what I need.

Do you have a story and/or characters that you love more than any others?

Thank you all very much for your sympathy and support! That's what made me able to get back to Doorways so soon.

How spectacularly the wheels came off...

2011-12-27T14:32:00.000+02:00

So... last night sucked.

Well, last night and this morning, since I spent four hours trying to recover my lost manuscripts.

Yes. Lost.

They can't be active undeleted. That can't be system restored. They can't be called up out of the hundreds of back-ups made, because according to the writing program I used, they never existed.

So I can't open my Doorways rough rewrite, but I have a copy of it to Word, if I decline all edits I made.

Half of the original opening for Don't Look Back is missing, but at least I hand-wrote it over to my notebook for NaNoWriMo.

Guardian seems to open and refuse at random, but I've managed to copy/paste it to Word.

No. My problem lies with Eden's Son I.E. WiP2. The entire rewrite is gone. Poof. Up into the ether. All of the back-ups only read up to before I started it. There are no Word versions because I didn't send it to anyone to read. I didn't copy/paste because a) it's freaking tedious and b) it's safe as long as I back up? Right?

Turns out no. Turns out backing up manually to create an extra copy obliterated months worth of work in less than a second.

So lesson number 1: NEVER use freeware. It's worth as much as you paid for it.
Number 2: NEVER assume that programmers think further than the tips of their noses. They don't. So that thing that seems obvious to do because it's what is supposed to happen? Don't do it before going to help and making doubly sure that that isn't the one that in his own words "DO NOT DO UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES."

But now I have to wonder: If I risk losing my work if I don't back-up and if I do? What action should I take? Print every page every freaking time? Because apparently it means bullshit to people that you spent most of a year on the work you lost, because apparently: "It can't vanish." is a satisfactory reply.

But like I said. I spent four hours last night looking for the data. My mother spent two this morning. It isn't there.

I am starting to accept this. Slowly, but it's hard, because now I know that my end of January goal for WiP2 is screwed. In fact, I downloaded the trial for Scrivener last night with the plan to buy the program in a month, but you know what? I don't want to write. I don't want to even look at my rough draft. Because all that I can see is the end of the document that's supposed to be followed by 26 chapters or thirty five thousand hard-fought words.

And then I want to kill something.

But on the flip-side, I've never thought I could lose over a hundred thousand words of everything and survive, but here I am.

So... what's your record loss? Got any horror stories to share? How did you recover?
Any Scrivener users out there? Is the program any good?
Any other drafting programs that I can look at?

Others have said... Keep a low profile, but miss nothing.

2011-12-26T15:54:00.000+02:00

An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.

Gustave Flaubert

When a reader starts a book, he/she is drawn into the story for many reasons. When the book is a piece of fiction, odds are that one of reasons for being drawn in is because it isn't part of/about the reader. It's an escape. A way to live in another place, to see another life. To hear another voice.

It's a wonderful thing, our power to draw people into the stories we write, our ability to help them escape because of their willingness to suspend disbelief for just long enought to drift into our imaginary landscapes. At the same time, it's a challenge, because once that link is made, it's fragile. So fragile that the smallest error could break it.

I call this break the "Hey wait" moment, after the reaction that I have when something stretches my suspension of disbelief too far. As in: "Hey wait, why the hell would the character do this?"
or... "Hey wait, the solution to this apparently insurmountable problem is simple and provided for in the rules of the universe."

Broadly speaking, "Hey wait" moments happen because of two reasons:

Firstly, because the author didn't pay attention or due regard to all of the important details in his/her story. A good example of this would be when the author forces the character into doing something that's clearly against his/her nature. Another one would be plot holes.

The second cause of a "Hey wait" would be the author showing him/herself. This one's a bit more difficult for a writer to catch, because it has nothing to do with the story, plot or characters. It's something a bit more subtle. It's when the story's voice is wrong, e.g. rich florid prose when the view point character is no nonsense or a stark narration when the character's supposed to be a fun loving kid. It's when the dialogue is forced, especially when it's forced to reveal backstory. In other words: the "As you know" dialogues. Those are my pet hates. They truly make me want to tear a book apart.

Another way that a writer can show him/herself is by writing all stories to the exact same formula. I'm not talking about the preference of certain types of characters or themes. I'm talking about telling different stories according to a single pattern. One that if figured out, will ruin any future story by the author. There's a bestselling author who wrote some great stories that I loved, until I worked out how he wrote them. How did I figure it out? Because each one of them is written in a certain way. And I see that way as cheating.

So the moral here: if you want to cheat, go ahead, just don't keep doing it and assume that no one will notice. Unless you don't care.

Repetition of words and/or sentence structures highlight a writer like nothing else on earth.

So when you get around to edits, add some variety, tripple check for realism and plausibility and do anything in your power to camouflage your presence.

Your reader will thank you for it.

What triggers a "Hey wait" reaction when you read? How do you avoid/fix that trigger when you write?

Oh Christmas Tree

2011-12-24T17:07:00.000+02:00

I wanted to put this post up last night, but because of the nature of the Christmas holidays, I wasn't able to, but I just have to show off this year's tree.

I admit that it looks a little bare in daylight...

But at night, it is magical:

Before I sign off, I want to ask that you please think of/pray for my friend Helen, who lost her husband in a car accident yesterday. She's about to enter a massive battle, as the accident has triggered a serious illness that she had when she was younger.

This really got me thinking, as we forget how fortunate we are to have everyone who is sharing Christmas with us. So if you haven't yet, go hug them and tell them you love them.

*HUUUUUUUUUUUUG!*

I love you.

Merry Christmas.

Motivation

2011-12-22T16:07:00.000+02:00

During my forced time off from my rewrite, something occurred to me about a moment in my WiP2 that's going to be a bit problematic. It's one of those watershed moments where a character makes a choice that will determine the course his life will take. So it makes for excellent story.

Only... the motivation was off. Or more accurately, the perception of the motivation was off.

To my mind, characterization is the reason why a character is who he is. Motivation is the reason why a character does what he does.

Actually, it's more the reason behind the reason. For example, commitment phobia might be a reason why a guy won't marry, but the reaction that caused the phobia as a result of something in the past is the motivation. In the case above, distrust as a result of his wife cheating on him with his best man would be his motivation.

Characters can have more than one motivation, but most importantly, each motivation will have a significant effect on how the character reacts to others or on how he lives and sees life. For example, Mr. Commitment-Phobe might start distrusting women in general, and then struggle with the idea of marriage as he falls in love. But then, since he was betrayed, he'll also very likely struggle to trust his love-interest around his friends or vice versa.

It's vitally important that the motivation is carried through the character as far as it can conceivably go, because if it doesn't go all the way, the motivation will be seen as weak and it will impact on the story. If I stumbled over the above example in the story, I would think that his phobia was on over-reaction if he didn't show at least some indication of it when his love interest is talking with his best friend. If this didn't happen, it cheapens the situation and takes the depth out of the story.

Another important factor to consider: perception vs reality. What I mean with this is the reader's perception based on the character's actions vs. the actual reason behind the action as known to the author. It's not that common that a character's motivation is kept from the reader until the end of the story, since the conflict that comes as a result of character motivations can make for some wonderful story, because the journey of discovery of the character's motivation makes for good reading. But not if the reader leaps to the wrong conclusion as to what motivates a character.

If the reader decides that a reader won't marry because he's selfish in some way, there's a problem. Because whether or not this conclusion was wrong, it will affect how the reader will perceive the story's events, as well as whether he/she will be able to stick through the story all the way to the big reveal.

The reader can be kept on the right track, though, through leaving clues to the motivation or by showing that the opposite of the wrong conclusion is true. For example, if there's a chance of a reader thinking that Mr. Commitment-Phobe is nothing but a selfish bastard, show him at his most generous. Maybe let him take a kid under his wing. Something like that. Something that shows that not only is the guy generous, he's only worried about committing to a woman.

What about you? How do you handle motivation - especially for difficult characters?

My Goals for 2012 (Yes, I know it's early, but I couldn't think of anything else to write about)

2011-12-21T20:18:00.002+02:00

Today was cleaning day, as family and friends will be arriving for my mother's birthday tomorrow. So after baking the cakes and delicious things, the rest of the day was pretty much spent washing floors.

It's not my most favorite thing in the world, but I at least got some time and mindless activity that allowed me to think about my June 30 goal.

I still need to finish the WiP2 rewrite before I start Doorways edits, since I won't have time for it later. So that means that the WiP2 rewrite has to be done by about 31 January. I'm about a quarter of the way through it, but since I did most of it in ten days, I don't think my goal is all that impossible.

That way, once I am finished with Doorways, I have another story to edit and one to finish drafting, whichever I feel like doing first.

In the long run, I always want a project in the mail somewhere. For that to happen, I have to lay the foundation now.

Then I want to finish Don't Look Back before the end of 2012. Hopefully I'll be on the Doorways sequel by 2013? We'll have to wait and see.

What about you? Have you set yourself any deadlines for next year? Let's hear them.

An important announcement

2011-12-20T14:15:00.002+02:00

Yesterday, I was thinking about my writing life so far.

As I was pondering, it occurred to me that next year, I will have been working on Doorways for five years.

That's half a decade of writing and tweaking.

I don't think that it's healthy to continue sitting on it, so next year, come hell or high water, I will start querying it. If no one's interested, I will start preparing it for publication.

Either way, I'm not going to be thinking about this again this time next year.

In fact, I should probably put up a date by which I want to get the edits done, so I'm going to say... 30 June 2012.

That gives me six months to polish it to a shine.

Maybe that makes me insane, but I have to try. The longer I wait, the more I will postpone on taking action.

So... anyone else tried to edit on a deadline before? Any advice for me?

Let's talk about the dark side

2011-12-19T20:50:00.000+02:00

It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.

Vita Sackville-West

I've been thinking about this for the past few days, but I'm wondering what you all think of it. I wonder if you even think about it at all.

I'm talking about the dark side. You know, that bit about writing that's there, but that doesn't get mentioned all that often.

Like the fact that it's more of an addiction than a passion. Or else it's a damn near all-consuming passion. One that makes me euphoric when I'm doing it, but leaves me suffering from withdrawal when I'm not. The more we write, the more we want to write. This is good in that few people are lucky enough to find something as constructive to be addicted to. Still, we're stuck in our minds half of the time. The other half is spent with at least a small part of us wishing that we were stuck in our minds and writing. This can (and has) led to some aggravation, embarrassment and tension in the past. Fact is, it's really difficult to maintain a balance when it comes to writing. If I stop paying attention for a few weeks, I spend most of my time bashing out words. And when I say most, I mean at least three quarters of my available time. And it's not like I don't have other things to do. I'm not saying that I just lie down and forget to live my life. I'm saying that part of me is always fighting the urge to write at the expense at some badly neglected part of my life.

Another thing: We're more sensitive than people think. In fact, I'd say we're more sensitive than we'd like to believe. Think about it. If something happens, normal people gloss over it and move on, or store it away to look at once in a while. We don't do that. We put everything away for later. And then when we go poking at those things so that we can get the right words and emotions onto the page. So not only do we feel everything, but we feel them for a long time. Writing is a good way to get those feelings out, but I know from own experience how much it hurts to call up certain memories, but I can't just avoid them, because they'll crop up in my writing whether I want them to or not. So if I don't willingly face something, writing will eventually force me to.

We go digging in the darkest corners of our psyche to find what we need when we're writing. Think about it... those thoughts and emotions that you're giving to the most evil villain that you can imagine? It comes from you. Your own fears. Your own prejudices. All of that comes from the dark places of your own soul. At the same time, all that is good in the story comes from you too. But the fact is, writing puts all of it out there. And most of us hope that our writing will be publicly consumed. I think that if we really think about how much of us goes into what we write, a lot of us would consider giving up. (Except for the fact that our writing addictions would run us ragged.) It opens us to a new and very special world of pain. Especially when it comes to rejection.

The last point I want to mention is one that got me thinking on these lines in the first place: We're self-aware - sometimes painfully so. When we dig about in our psyches, we discover things that take most people forever to even become aware of. We explore those things, so we get know ourselves better than most people. Think I'm kidding? Find someone you trust and if your conversation turns serious, start talking about who you are. You'll find you're far more aware of what's going on inside of you than your friend about him/herself. Good? Most of the time. Until you find out something that you might not have wanted to know. I recently figured out a big motivation in my life, and it wasn't what I thought. It's actually quite twisted and after I discovered this part of myself, I took weeks to settle into this new awareness. Hell, I'm still not really comfortable and I know that I was doing just fine until I made this discovery. I can't help thinking that I wouldn't even have thought along the lines that lead to my discovery if I hadn't been a writer.

So was Vita Sackville-West right? Does writing help me "score above my fellows"? I'd say yes, but sometimes there's a cost involved. A high cost? Possibly, but then nothing that's worthwhile comes for free. And right now, there's nothing that feels as worth while as creating and if used correctly and constructively, even the dark side to writing can be to our benefit...

What say you? Thoughts?

Any other dark aspects to add? What gets to you sometimes?

What I did today

2011-12-16T17:21:00.000+02:00

Today was spent making one Christmas present (and about four attempts of a quarter of another one). Fun, until the second present started annihilating my right hand. This took seven hours.

My mom and I decorated our Christmas tree. Looks cool, but isn't finished until I finish the presents. Sigh.

And we did all of this listening to carols. Awesome in the beginning, but by hour four it started to grate. Still, I can say that for about three hours I was pretty dang cheerful. Maybe it was that second bookmark that ruined it.

So needless to say, I didn't even look at any of my writing. I'm thinking that a few hours of this mind-numbing repetitive motion might just be good for my writing, but darn, I'm starting to feel the stirrings of frustration now, because I haven't written nearly enough.

Does it happen to you at all that you do something that has to be done, that's food for you because you're taking a break, and all you feel is annoyed?

You can teach me to plot? Thanks, but...

2011-12-15T14:13:00.001+02:00

I always wonder why people think that there's only one way to write.

Just today I read a tweet about how one can learn how to plot.

But then... why would I?

I mean, I do just fine pantsing (at two finished drafts and a third in progress). No one's going to drop dead when I pants.

Why do people always think that plotting is better? The only thing that plotting does for me is give me an excuse to procrastinate while I write down what I already knew what was supposed to happen. Otherwise it discouraged me because I didn't know every detail before I started writing.

You know what? It doesn't matter not having all the details. That's what the first draft is for: to find out what the heck is going on in the story.

Because there's a big difference between what you think is happening and what happens when you write it down.

Still, I will never go as far as to say that pantsing is superior to plotting in any way. Pantsing has its own drawbacks, the main one being "painting yourself into a corner". Then there's also the blocks that happen because you don't know how to start what happens next. Or the gaping plot holes. And so on and so forth.

But here's the kicker: I enjoy fighting myself out of my self-created corner situations. I like not knowing too much about the story when I start. It gives me my sense of adventure. I enjoy the mental gymnastics involved in solving the plot holes once I get to them.

And no matter what, there's one big reason why I don't plot. I used to plot all of my stories. Every single one. Seven of them in total. How many did I finish? Zip. How many did I get half way? Zero. How many did I get quarter way: Two (I think) before I dumped them because they had no soul.

So I have no reason why I'd want to plot. Not even the smallest of reasons. The only thing approaching plotting that I do is making a point of knowing how the story ends.

So if you're a plotter. Kudos to you. Especially if you're good at it.

If you're not. So what? As long as you get your stories done, that's fine. And if you're new to this writing business, don't ever believe it when someone says it's better to plot.

Unless you've pantsed for years and through many stories and failed to finish one.

What do you think? Is there really a better way to write a novel?

Are you a plotter or a pantser? What about your preferred style makes it suit you?

Ann Carbine Best on Self Publishing

2011-12-14T13:38:00.000+02:00

Hi all! Today I welcome Ann Carbine Best to My First Book. She's definitely one of my favorite bloggers out there, a lady worth listening to and one who I look up to. So please head over to her blog to say hi.

Thanks, Misha, for hosting me today and letting me talk about my two stories that I recently self-published: how it worked out for me and if I would self-publish again.

My debut memoir In the Mirror: A Memoir of Shattered Secrets was published by a small press, and they did a great job with my story. It’s still selling, especially for the Kindle, and has garnered excellent reviews. But I’m seventy-one years old with not a lot of time left to wait for responses to queries. And if I did land an acceptance for my next novel-length memoir in progress, I would be in the queue with other authors, our manuscripts waiting for attention on a sometimes overworked editor’s desk.

So, for these reasons, and because the reading public, as several blogger followers have recently affirmed, don’t have the time to read long books; and because I had two stories in my files that I thought might be interesting to others, stories that I have reworked over the years (An Ozark Memory was a prize-winning story); and because I’ve always enjoyed a challenge, I decided to self-publish them.

So I took a deep breath….and meticulously followed Mark Coker’s marvelous style guide (free) for Smashwords. I had no problems with this. Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon wasn’t as easy, but I finally figured it out . . . after many very long hours of trials and errors!

Things to think about before you decide to self-publish:

You’re on your own with cover art, formatting, and trailers. Roland Yeomans recently left this comment on my blog: “John Locke says 99 cents is the way to go to attract readers. Having to pay for my cover art, formatting, and trailers led me to charge 2.99 or 1.99 for most of mine, though I have 3 99 cent-er’s.”

I was fortunate to have a friend who wouldn’t have charged me but she’s a young woman recently divorced with three young children, and so I paid her. Formatting: I did this myself. Trailers: I didn’t do any and don’t intend to. Thus, not much up front for these details.

You have control over financial details. I did put up my novelette-length story Imprisoned for $2.99 then changed it to $.99. This is something you can easily do as a self-published author. I think this is a plus. You can also go into Smashwords’ author dashboard and Amazon’s KDP author bookshelf and make changes if you find errors in your text after publication. I finally discovered how easy this is to do, although it does take longer on Amazon but less than twelve hours (they say it can take up to 24 hours, but it never did for me) for the changes to be finalized.

I also didn’t have to pay for a proofreader because I was confident I could do this myself. I’ve worked as a professional proofreader, and also as a college teacher of grammar, and did an editing intern when I was working on my bachelor’s degree in English. I also have a great critique partner who looked for problems with structure and content.

After I published the stories, I downloaded each one to my Kindle and Nook to make certain I had caught all the errors. Next time around - if I self-publish again - it won’t be so stressful because I now know how to do it!

It’s a bit scary. You alone have to put out a product that’s free of mechanical errors. Such errors as well as formatting problems are the two most criticized areas of self-published works. I know because I’ve seen them in some of the self-published books I’ve read. Not all, but some. More and more I find self-publishing authors putting out excellent products, and I wanted to be one of them. So I sent my stories to two readers, and kept re-reading them also in several different formats, including a printout.

And you have to do your own promotion. I’m a rather shy person, but I’ve become more outgoing after sixteen months of blogging and promoting my debut memoir. You pretty much have to do most of the promotion yourself even if you go the traditional route.

What do you think? For me it’s being able to say, “I did it.” Now it’s up to my readers to decide if I did it well.

Thanks so much for this interesting post, Ann. You mentioned some things that I really have to think about when I have to decide how I'm going to get my works in progress out there.

Now for those of you interested in checking out Ann's books or to read more about Ann, you can go to Amazon, Smashwords, or to her blog.

Yes... I am still alive.

2011-12-13T16:31:00.000+02:00

This picture pretty much sums up how I've felt for the past two weeks. The week before, that, I didn't write because of a string of interviews for a job.

Didn't get it. No matter.

I just had to take a few breaths, get back to writing and...

Oh yeah. The day of the last interview, me, my gran and my mother returned home to find the power off. My puzzled mom (who had paid the usual amount to our real estate agent) phoned the municipality to find out what happened to our electricity.

She was referred to accounts and was told that the power was cut because of the fact that my mother owed them R12000. Ahem...

That's *cough* six times our monthly consumption.

It's also more than what an average worker earns in a month. About three times as much in fact.

So... two weeks in the dark was spent with me stewing in my own juices.

Still, it was somewhat fun, but by yesterday the novelty of boiling water on a gas stove (which we had waiting around in the kitchen), the silence and the time spent with the family (after sunset we played cards to keep ourselves busy) was gone.

Now I'm back, but the ramifications of those two lost weeks only hit me now. I was supposed to finish a significant portion of my rewrites in that time. I was supposed to start editing Doorways again.

And here I am, staring at the computer because I don't know which one I should focus on first.

Still, I'm glad to be back and more than a little glad to be.

Anything interesting happen while I was gone?

Fabulosity Galore

2011-11-28T13:30:00.000+02:00

My friend and fellow blogger, Wendy Ewurum, has opened a new virtual bookstore called Fabulosity Galore.

The official announcement reads:

Fabulosity Galore is an online book store and blog created and run by Wendy G. Ewurum, author of Fabulosity Reads (a book review blog).

We are affiliated to a number of booksellers amongst which are Amazon.com and Kalahari..com. Our affiliations are increasing constantly in a quest to find the best book and accessory deals in the market.

We also aim to make the best effort to prominently feature books which have been reviewed by us at Fabulosity Reads . This is a quest to support our writer friends and favourite books in their promotional and sales endeavours.

Readers are more than welcome to submit their bookish requests and comments to us.

And last but not least: we also welcome news from writers about any promotional activities concerning works/books.

We hope to build incredible and long-lasting relationships with our buyers, retailers, authors and publishers and cannot wait to hear from you or meet your at our store.

I think this might just be an interesting idea. What do you think?

By the way, if you need extra convincing to go look, there's a competition going on for 5 $10 amazon vouchers.

Guest Post Friday: Nutschell Ann Windsor

2011-11-25T14:50:00.000+02:00

Hi all! Welcome to this year's last installment of Guest Post Friday. Today I welcome Nutschell to My First Book.

Nutschell (pronounced new-shell and not nut-shell) is a middle grade/ young adult fantasy writer who hails from the Philippines and now lives in sunny Los Angeles. She is an SCBWI-LA Board member, and the founder of the Torrance Children’s Book Writers (which will become the Children’s Book Writers of Los Angeles starting January, 2012). A Jane-of-all-Trades, Nutschell’s interests include photography, travel, sketching, playing the guitar and drums, playing basketball, badminton, billiards, and singing in the shower. She also practices the Filipino martial art of Escrima, and bakes yummy marshmallow cloud cookies.

Take it away, Nutschell!

As storytellers we are creative by nature. We can build worlds that inspire the imagination, create characters that readers fall in love with, give words to feelings that often go undefined, and weave stories that live on long after we’re gone.

People might think of us as magical beings who can pull stories from thin air and spin them into best-selling novels in three days. But the truth is that we are human beings who live normal lives, and have the same problem with time and money as everyone else.

We write whenever we can, wherever we can—and we also write whatever we can. We dabble in poetry, try our hand essays and screenplays, and fill our notebooks with unfinished novels.

Sometimes, we encounter the dreaded writer’s block and we run out of things to say. We run out of topics and story ideas, and yet we still continue to write. We make lists just to have something to write. We write notes and letters, type text messages, and tweets all because we can’t stop our fingers from doing what we know we were born to do—write and tell stories.

In order for our writing to be worth our time, and to be of any importance to the world, however, we must come up with stories that matter not only to us, but to others as well. We have to come up with a story that’s worth writing.

How do we do this? Where do we get these worthy story ideas?

The great Judy Blume, at the SCBWI Summer Conference, said, “I write on the day something happens.”

In order to come up with story-worthy ideas, we have to leave the comfort of our desks, break the cycle of our dreary routines, and make something happen. Tasting an exotic new dish, trying out a new scent, listening to music we normally avoid, reading books of different genres, even watching movies made long before our time, are all great ways of inspiring our creative minds.

Local events happen daily—book signings, street fairs, farmers markets, concerts, lectures, parties, random soccer matches. We can invite friends and family to attend any of these with us. They’ll be happy for a change in scenery, and we might get great ideas just by experiencing something new.

If there’s nothing going in our neck of the woods, we could create our own event. We can pick up a map of our city and explore areas that seem interesting, or that have some historical significance. We could do an activity we’ve never tried before. A visit to a local psychic might yield some interesting mystery or fantasy story ideas. Going on a hot-air balloon ride, or kayaking might spur an adventure story. Attending a renaissance fairs, wine-tasting events, or taking self-guided tours to a nearby historical site (or even around our neighborhood) might give us ideas for that historical novel we’ve always wanted to write.

We must always be on the look out for sensory experiences that spark electric ideas.

Conversations heard on subway rides could become dialogues in our novels, the smell of a stranger’s sour breath, or her sweet perfume might trigger a memory in our minds that turns into a story, someone’s unconscious habit of twiddling her thumbs could become a character’s quirk.

Story ideas come from all around us. We gather them from our own memories, events we live through, people we meet or see on the streets, books we read, movies and TV shows we watch, or strong emotions we feel. The more we experience, the deeper our well of ideas become.

So go ahead and seize every opportunity to discover the joys of life. Make something happen—then write.

The best way to come up with story-worthy ideas is to live a story-worthy life.

***My special thanks to the wonderful Mish having me here today, and to you all for stopping by to read my ramblings.

Thanks for such a fitting end to Guest Post Friday 2011, Nutschell.

So... Have you ever given something new a try just to stimulate your muse?

Then I have another question. Have you enjoyed Guest Post Friday? Think I should let it continue next year?

Oh for the love of lamb!

2011-11-24T13:34:00.000+02:00

Sigh. Today is one of those days. I have a rewrite waiting for me at a particularly juicy place. I mean I got to it yesterday and thought that I would write the scene today and have a lovely burst of productivity that will maybe help me to do a few thousand words.

All wonderful in theory except that I forgot it's my cooking turn. So when I remembered this, I went to the fridge and - since it's mouth end - found my options limited to unrecognisable frozen meat that looked like brisket and unrecognisable frozen meat looking like chops.

I chose the latter and got the directive to make a stew so that we could use the sauce on our krummelpap. So I did the preparations, chucked in the meat and checked on the brew regularly.

And found to my dismay that it is in fact neck. Now I love neck when it is well cooked and soft. What I don't like is cooking neck, because it takes as long as it takes to cook.

In other words, it has been on the stove for three hours and counting, with me checking at 15 minute intervals that the brew doesn't cook dry.

Not the most productive way to write. *Sob*

I only hope that the stew looks like this once it's done:

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my U.S. friends!

Emily Matthews on Getting to the NaNoWriMo Finish Line

2011-11-23T14:11:00.000+02:00

Hi all! Although I'm no longer doing NaNo, and although I know a lot of you already won, I decided to post this guest post. It's for those of you who have to push hard to get your WiP done on time and really want to win. Just a few more tips. :-) Thank you for sending me this post, Emily.

Tips for Getting to the NaNoWriMo Finish Line

Writing a novel in a month, as NaNoWriMo participants do, is an exciting and exhilarating, but often frustrating, experience. You have 30 days to write 50,000 words. This means that you have to overcome plot difficulties and deal with writer's block in only 720 hours. But remember, this isn’t a job, and you’re not going to be graded. You shouldn’t hold yourself to the same standard you would your thesis in a masters degree program. If you're stuck, the following tips that can get you through it.

Join in Word Wars
Word wars are 5, 10, 15, or 20 minute blocks of time where you type as much as you can as fast as you can. It gets you writing and the challenge with other writers can boost you up. Since NaNoWriMo is about quantity of words and not quality of words, this gets you to stop thinking and start typing.

Kill a Character
This technique can lead to a whole array of complications and things to write about, even if that means spending 10 pages describing the funeral.

Throw in a Dream
If you have a dream sequence, not only can it reveal something to your character (even if it's something like they're allergic to bread), but it can get you past the "I'm stuck" mantra. If you must, turn it into a recurring dream.

Visit the NaNoWriMo Forums
These are a great place to laugh, seek advice and commiserate with the others are participating in the event.

Take a Break
Stop writing. Walk the dog. Stretch. Eat. It sounds silly, but a break can reduce your anxiety and may even lead to the perfect solution to your character's problem.

NaNoWriMo is a time of coffee, sleep deprivation, plot terrors, and, if you work at it, success. If you've always dreamed of writing "that story," now's the time to do it. Get your fingers on the keyboards and start typing. You can do it.

Thanks again for the post, Emily! My questions for all my writing friends: What tricks do you have to finish NaNo?

I have come to a decision

2011-11-21T14:45:00.000+02:00

Some of you might have suspected as much since I've become so quiet about it recently, but today I made my final decision to step out of the NaNoWriMo race.
I still love my draft. Passionately. It's just that I have never been a fast drafter. Doorways took 3 years. WiP2 took more than a year.

The reason for this is in the way my mind works when I write. I don't know if I'm the only person who writes like this, but when I start writing, it's almost as if I write from my subconscious. So when something in the story isn't working, my words will stop completely until I figure out what's wrong. Sadly, because my writing isn't really cerebral as much as intuitive, figuring out the problem requires a considerable amount of waiting until the answer occurs to me.

And that is exactly what happened with Don't Look Back.

I used to be worried about my "writers blocks" all the time, until I realized how vital they were to my creative methods. Now I don't mind them at all. I just forgot how bad they can be on an incredibly tight schedule. Like... say... giving myself a month deadline.

In the mean time I will be working on the WiP2 rewrite for the time being, since I'm still craving some more neutrality on Doorways before I can edit again.

So what about my NaNo buddies? Who's done? Who fell down by the wayside like me? And the non-NaNoers? How are your writing travails going?

Guest Post Friday: Jenna Quentin

2011-11-18T10:42:00.001+02:00

Hi all! Today I welcome Jenna Quentin to My First Book. Jenna's a health nut, evangelical hippy, who loves the cheese and wine of her adopted country France. She writes for teen and middle grade magazines and random websites. Her current work in progress is a middle grade novel called The Magicless, set in a parallel universe that looks like modern France. She blogs at Meandering in a Field of Words about things from life, movies and books that are inspiring or examples of inspiration. She's on Twitter @JennaQuentin and on facebook at Jenna Quentin.

Take it away, Jenna!

Be Inspired to Be You

We all wanna be J.K. Rowling or Nathan Bransford or somebody. We think of changing kids' lives with the words over which we agonized. We imagine having a grant to support us while we write full-time. We dream of the house we'll buy in the Pyrénées mountains when we sell the film rights. We say we do it because we love it, because it's in our souls, because we'd shrivel up and die if we didn't. But I think we all dream of being writer rock stars or young adult fiction idols.

Like Emerson's transparent eyeball, taking in information without being observed, I try to be very thirsty sponge soaking up everything around me and using it for inspiration. I recently saw this music video by my beautiful Michael Bublé (ok, he's not mine). It spoke to me about my writerly aspirations and believing in myself. 'Cause most days I feel like if I'm not a blazing glorious success, that I should just give up. RRRRR. Wrong answer.

I'm not saying that we should not aim high. But there's a difference between being all we can be and being thinking that we have to be a particular something in order to be at our best. How can we be realistic in our goals, but still shoot for the stars?

I don't know the answer for everyone. But I want to encourage any writers or starving artists or dreamers..."Keep on lovin' what is true, and the world will come to you, you can find it in yourself."

What is your dream? Do you have a song that lifts you up when you need it, that keeps you dreaming and says you can achieve it?

NaNo Day 15: Oh for a sweet distraction

2011-11-15T16:44:00.001+02:00

Something dangerous is happening. Well, dangerous to the success of this year's NaNo.

My muse is going all: Well, this is sweet, but let's go looking at Doorways. Or even your western. Remember? The two that are already done but need some polish?

Yeah. My muse is a heinous bitch sometimes.

So here I am, fighting really hard to focus on my NaNo project, but the words are slowing down, because I'm spending half the time reminding myself that I am in fact in draft mode and that I don't have time to do edits on anything.

Sigh.

Anyone have any advice?