Top 10

The top ten things I learned this summer:

1.      Having knee surgery is not the best way to start your summer off.

2.       Physical therapy sucks, but it works.

3.       Air-conditioning is a must.

4.       Taking a writing class with one of your favorite authors is awesome!

5.       Watching your little brother get married is harder than you thought it would be because now you’re both really grown up.

6.       The smile on your five-year-olds face when she rides a plane for the first time is priceless.

7.       Disney really is the most magical place on Earth.

8.       Yes, there is a person out there that looks exactly like the character you’ve imagined in your head, just don’t freak out when you see them in real life (especially when they are being photographed for Nordstrom’s on the Santa Monica pier, see my post on YA Stands).

9.       I love the mountains.

10.   Writing the perfect synopsis may give me an ulcer.

So, what things did you learn this summer?

What's Next?

I love the thrill of starting a new project.  There’s this magical feeling that something great is going to happen, but you don’t know what it is yet.  Even as the writer you don’t always know where a story is going to go.  You know what you want to happen and roughly how you want it to unfold, but as you write, the story changes, taking unexpected turns.

I’ve been neck deep in edits for CAPTIVE ART the past few weeks, trying to get it in tip top shape for querying.  This is one of those stories that took some very unexpected turns.  While I love the way it all turned out, it’s worlds different from what I originally had in my head.

This brings me to the bright shiny new idea that has invaded my brain space.  It’s even been keeping me up at night thinking of lines and scenes between these new characters.  I want to sit and work on it all day (& night), but I know I have other priorities.  Priorities like reading for my critique partners, doing my physical therapy and folding that pesky pile of laundry.  (Not to mention showering, but running through the sprinkler with my 5yo works just as well.)  But I’m so excited about this new idea that it’s hard not to make it a priority.

So, what am I going to do next?  Well, I can tell you this…laundry will have to wait.

Time Flies

Wow!  Has it really been over a month since my last post, the time has whizzed by.  The truth is I’ve been very busy.  Most of May and the first part of June I spent preparing for my third, and hopefully last, knee surgery.  It’s been a long and trying year since I first had to contend with the fact that my knees just weren’t strong enough to do all the things I want and need to do at this point in my life.  So even as I sit here in bed for a few more days with an ice pack on my leg and pain meds on the night stand, I can see an end to all the doctor’s appointments and tests and (fingers crossed) pain.

Part of my pre-op preparations included enrolling in an online writing class through a site called Lit Reactor, and taught by non-other than the fabulous agent/author Mandy Hubbard.  The class is dedicated to writing for young adults and along with informational lectures from Mandy we are also getting critiques from her on our current projects.  Another great part of the class is between the 18 students we can read and review each other’s work.  So not only do we get Mandy’s thoughts, but we also get thoughts from other writers!  Awesome right?

We’re currently half way through the four week course and I’d have to say that the biggest impact it’s had on my writing is that I’ve learned to slow down.  I’ve learned that each sentence, each word, must have a purpose for going on the page and it must draw the reader in and pull them forward.  I also have a much better grasp on the whole, show don’t tell concept, which I know will improve my writing immensely.

My one complaint (well, not really complaint, bummer mostly) about the class is that it’s only four weeks and we’ll only get through about the first three chapters of each of the student’s WIPs.  Obviously Mandy is a very busy person and couldn’t possibly critique 18 manuscripts for people who aren’t her clients, but one can dream, right?

In addition to the class, I’ve also recently become a contributing blogger to the YA Stands site, a site dedicated to the young adult writing community.  I encourage you to hop over there and check it out.  There is a diverse group of bloggers with tons of great information for writers, readers and general lovers of the YA genre.  Also, if you hurry and check out my post from June 19th, you could win a copy of A Beautiful Dark, by Jocelyn Davies.

So how about you, what have you been up to the last few weeks?

If You Give A Writer A Pen

If you give a writer a pen, she’ll ask for a piece of paper.

When you hand her the paper, she’ll notice your watch and ask what time it is.

You’ll tell her and she’ll remember she has an appointment.

She’ll grab her phone to call and say she’s going to be late.

Her phone will show she has an email from her critique partner.

She’ll respond to the email.

Her critique partner will see the response right away then want to chat on Twitter.

She’ll log into Twitter and see a tweet on an interesting blog post.

She’ll open the blog and begin to read it.

The blog will include a music video she’ll like and she’ll want to download the song.

When she opens iTunes she’ll see she has updates pending.

While she’s waiting for the updates, she’ll log into Facebook to see what her friends are up to.

One of her friends will have sent her a message saying they want to meet for lunch.

This will remind her she’s late for an appointment.

She’ll need to write a note to tell her husband she’s going out.

You’ll give her a pen.

And chances are, if you give her a pen, she’ll ask for a piece of paper.

The ‘If you give…’ books by Laura Numeroff are some of my daughter’s favorites.  If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is the most widely known, though our family favorite is If You Give a Dog a Donut.  The stories are made up of situations where one thing leads to another, and then another, until you end right back where you started.

I often feel like this when I sit down to write.  My intention is to just write, but the many distractions of life, and largely the internet, get in the way.  Eventually I find I’ve wasted copious amounts of time not writing.  I do usually get back to what I was doing, but I’ve often lost the inspiration I had when I originally sat down to write.

Some of those distractions are necessary evils of being a writer, but I’m working on limiting them.  I’ve been trying to do my writing first before logging onto social media.  Or, if there is something I need to look up online, I refuse to look at anything else except the specific information I was searching for.  Sometimes I'll even set a kitchen timer so that I know I can only be online for twenty minutes instead of an hour (or more).

Do you find yourself easily distracted when you should be writing?  I’d love to hear how you handle that.

Now, where did that pen go...?

Rave Review

The clock ticked to 11:17 p.m. and I turned another page.

The clock ticked to 12:38 a.m. and I turned to the next chapter.

The clock ticked to 1:26 a.m. and I closed the book…satisfied to have read every word.

Late last year I met Veronica Rossi on Twitter and immediately put her debut novel, UNDER THE NEVER SKY, on my to-read list, I even pre-ordered it and picked it up the day it was released.  Unfortunately, some circumstances happened that prevented me from reading it right away.  So when it came my turn to pick the next book for my YA book club, there was no question what my choice would be.

I am a very slow reader so for me to read a book in one sitting is basically impossible, but this book came very close.  (I read the first hundred pages earlier in the week and last night finished the rest.)  The story’s basic premise is of a girl, Aria, who is wrongfully accused of a crime and forced out of her home, a protective dome, and into a dangerous wasteland.  She soon meets a boy, Perry, who has also been exiled from his home and the two of them form a packed to help each other find the loved ones they’ve been separated from. (This is an extremely brief description, but I don’t want to be spoilery at all.)

The thing I enjoyed most about this story was the character development.  I loved how Aria turned from a girl, who seemed weak and sorry for herself, to a woman, strong and determined to fight for what she loved.  Perry turned from someone who seemed to constantly second guess himself, to someone who knew exactly what he wanted, and needed to do.  I also loved, that where Aria’s changes were often big and bold, much like herself, Perry’s changes were subtle, yet extremely compelling, much like him.  In addition to Aria and Perry, I thought the secondary characters had great arcs as well and I can’t wait to see more of their stories as the trilogy progresses.

My other favorite part was the way Rossi incorporated all five (six) senses into what she was writing.  You could feel the heat of a fire and smell the pine of a forest as if you were right there.  It was like the senses were a character of their own.  She used them not only to describe things, but also to move the story forward.

Overall, this was one of the best books I've ever read.  I'm excited to see where she goes with the rest of the trilogy and hope she has more stories waiting in the wings.  Below you will find the book trailer...enjoy!

Tough Lemons

We’ve all heard the sayings:

When the going gets tough, the though get going.

Or

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Well what happens when life hands you a bushel full of tough lemons?  Lemons you can’t peel or squeeze or even cut open.  The kind of lemons that are so hard and bitter you couldn’t add enough sugar to make them suitable for drinking.  What do you then and how do you get going when you have to drag a pile of rock hard lemons with you?

This past week was one of the most difficult and stressful weeks of my life.  It wasn’t any one thing that made it that way, but combination of a lot (I mean A LOT) of little things that kept adding up on top of each other until all I had was a heaping mound of petrified lemons.  I won’t go into all the individual things that happened, but I will tell you I tried to make lemonade.

I really did!

(A quick side note, one of the things that went wrong this week was a technical error on my part on Goodreads and I want to tell you all to mark SPLINERED by A.G. Howard on your ‘to-read’ list.  I’m very excited for Anita’s debut novel coming out in January 2013!)

(Back to what I was saying and this part has nothing to do with my boo-boo on Goodreads.) I tried to make the best out of a bad situation.  I tried to take other’s comments with a grain of salt.  I tried to remind myself that I am truly blessed in many ways.  I tried to look beyond the things happening right now and remember that the day will come when I’ve met or even exceeded my goals.

And you know what I discovered…I don’t like lemonade!

I don’t like the bitter aftertaste it leaves or the sour chalky way it makes my tongue feel.  So, I’m bagging up all those tough lemons and pitching them.  No, I’m not giving up or giving in.  I’m deciding to make Kool-Aid instead.  Kool-Aid is sweet and yummy and filled with refreshing goodness.  I’m deciding to be kind to those who are not kind to me.  I’m deciding to trust that I’m on the right path and these are just some of the challenges I’ll have to face to get where I’m supposed to go.  I’m deciding to embrace rejection and shun jealousy.  And I’m deciding to love every up and down of my life because if there were never any downs, I wouldn’t appreciate the ups, right?

One of my favorite blogs, Pub(lishing) Crawl, did a post this week on strong female heroines, heroines that have both inner and outer strength.  It was geared more toward young adult books, but I think the premise stands for all women.  At every stage of life we have to have strength to deal with the issues we face.  We have to be our own strong heroine and set an example for others to be strong as well.  Call it what you like, getting tough, making lemonade (or Kool-Aid in my case) or being a strong heroine.  But whatever it is, I’m going to do it.  I’m going to persevere through the stuff of life that weighs you down and holds you back, and I’m going to be better for it.

This song was my mantra for the week, here’s Jason Mraz with I Won’t Give Up.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

I spent this entire evening righting a first kiss scene for a book I’m not even close to ready to write.  Unfortunately the scene was swimming around in my head since 7 a.m. and refused to be ignored.  But I’m happy to say it turned out well and now that it’s out of my head I can get back to what I really need to be working on…edits.

Anyway, what I’d really like to know is what are some of your favorite kissing scenes, in books specifically, and why?  I’d also like to know your least favorites, in other words, kisses that happened between characters that made you mad and want to throw the book.  (I tell my daughter we never throw books, but sometimes I’d really like to, instead I keep reading until it gets better.) 

Also, if any of you would like to share an excerpt of a kissing scene you’ve written, feel free to do so.