Surprises

I'm in the middle of writing the third book in The Burn series, The Reaping. Writing these books, I've had an outline every time, and it's nice to have a sense of where the book is headed. But I create loose outlines. I know basic plot points, but I don't always know how Terra is going to get from point A to point B. Case in point:

Today I've been working on (get ready for it...here comes a teaser!) Terra trying to sneak into a hospital. I've known this event would happen the whole time I've been working on this book. But what I didn't know is that she would find a secret door. And I didn't know what she would find behind that door. But I do now, and let me tell you, the government-run Burn is not a happy place.

How's that for some suspense? :)

Another One Bites the Dust

I've gotten the feedback from my beta readers, so I've been working on my next draft of The Reaping. Can I say I love my beta readers? It's so nice to know I'm not writing in a vacuum. Sometimes it feels that way, and getting outside opinions is an enormous help.

One of the best advice for this book from one of my beta readers is to eliminate most of my adverbs. As I've been reading and rereading my draft, I realized that oh boy do I ever love my adverbs! So I've been cutting and cutting and hacking away. I've left some, but most of them have now seen the bloody end of my vicious red pen.

One of the more choice examples that I've eliminated?

"quietly whispers"

Seriously? Oh, yes, it was in there. Not only is it redundant, but a perfect example of a useless adverb. Does a reader really have to be told that a whisper is quiet? No I trust you, my lovely readers, to know that a whisper isn't a shout. What was I thinking?

But that's why beta readers are essential and wonderful. Getting someone else's eyes looking at my work helps me take a step back and see it more objectively. So here's to more adverb slashing!

I Try Not to Read Them

One of the best pieces of advice I've ever read (and I can't even tell you who said it--probably just about any writer who's ever written) was to not read reviews of your work. A good review can set you soaring, but a bad review can tear you to shreds.

I read that advice, and I said, "Whatever, I can take a bad review. Constructive criticism, right?"

Kind of.

The problem with bad reviews is that they fall into two categories: 1) people who actually put thought into them and do legitimately offer good advice on improving your writing and what could be improved in the story, and 2) people who just don't like your book but can't articulate why and instead rip you up one way and down the other.

So I started with every intention of reading bad reviews with the intent to find ways to improve my writing, but I quickly ran up against that second kind of bad review. You can guess how depressing the second kind of bad review can be. But it's like a car crash--no matter how gruesome the wreckage, you just can't look away. But finally I stopped and breathed a great big sigh of relief. Because no matter how hard I work and how much time I put into making my story the best story possible, there's always going to be someone who doesn't like it. And that's okay.

So the purpose of this post (I realize it got away from me!) was to thank book blogger Pam from Between the Bookcovers for the kind words she posted about The Burn. The book has been out for nine months now, and it still makes me giddy when someone new likes it. So thank you, Pam.

And for those of you wondering where The Reaping stands, I just finished another draft. One step closer :)

Why I Like Sports

Nope, I'm not an avid sports watcher. Sure, I'll watch the occasional game if I actually care about who wins. Does that happen very often? No, not really.

So why do I like sports, you ask? Because my husband loves to watch sports. And when my husband watches sports, I am soooo productive. Case in point? He's watching the NBA finals, and I'm getting writing done. And sitting nearby.

It's a good situation, I think.

Hot, Hot Summer

So summer has come in with a bang. After reaching 112 degrees last week, I said, "Yup, it's here." I think I was in denial. Major denial. But that's Phoenix for you. Enough to melt you into a puddle. So we've had swim lessons and hours in the pool and popsicles and playing in the sprinklers in the backyard. Usually this time of year rolls around and I just want to sit on the couch where I'm in reach of the ceiling fan's breeze and do nothing.

But after a week of having little to no motivation to work on The Reaping and procrastinating until it wasn't even funny any more, I've hit a groove. Phew. I was starting to get worried. Because, confession: there's a big reason I haven't had the energy to work on it. Okay, it's technically a little reason, weighing no more than about a pound at the moment, but here it is: another little cute girl will be joining our family in October. And needless to say, my energy has been at about a zero. So big hooray for hitting a groove.

It was about time.

And I'm sure glad it's hit because Terra's story is looking pretty exciting right now, and I'm thrilled to be working on it.

The Reaping: The First Draft

I finished the first draft today. 68,000 words. This was a monumental task for me. I've never found a draft to be so hard to get out. Which means working on the second draft won't be a piece of cake, either, but I'm excited to get into it and see how I can make Terra's story better.

Going into the sequel, I thought, "Oh, how hard can a sequel be?" New flash...very hard! I was under the misunderstanding that having characters in place and knowing how I wanted the story to develop would make this a cinch. Nope. Anything but. I've never worked so hard for a story in my life.

The first half was really hard to write. The second started flowing a lot easier and went pretty fast. So I'm betting the first half will need quite a bit of work. So as I read through this first draft, I'll be interested to see how many times I'll tell myself, "What were you thinking?!"

So hopefully the second draft won't be quite as arduous as the first, but I'm planning on quite a bit of work for it.

After the second draft, then I'll send it to my beta readers and see how many times they also say "What were you thinking?!" That's the beauty of beta readers. They tell it to you straight (if you have good beta readers) and make the story infinitely better than you could on your own.

Is There Really a Villain Here?

I don't know how many of you, dear readers, have read anything about the wild 'n' crazy self-publishing movement going on. Self publishing has been going on for years, but it hasn't been until a few authors earned fame and fortune (Amanda Hocking, anyone?) through self publishing that your neighbor and their cat and their goldfish decided to jump on this bandwagon and try their hand at writing a book. And it helps that there are so many easy ways to do it.

With the ease of self-publishing, people (too many people, in my opinion) are questioning the value of publishing houses. This coming from the perspective of a self-published author, and I can't bring myself to play the publishing-house-hating game. It's just not fair.

Here's a list of some gripes against publishing houses:

• They offer small royalties
• They pay itty-bitty advances
• They retain rights to your work for a long while (relatively) so you can't do anything with it
• It can take upward of a year and a half or more to see your book in print once it's been accepted
• The competition is brutal to get anything published

These are all true. But here's the part that most people don't talk about:

Publishing is a business.

To read the rest of my article about the publishing business, jump on over to What's Your Story (and you can also enter to win a signed paperback of The Burn!)

You Might Think I'm Weird, But I Love Copy Editing

I'm deep in the midst of copy editing Bound. I've done the drafting, the revising, the stewing, the plotting, the pondering, the rewriting, the pulling-my-hair-trying-to-figure-out-how-to-make-it-better stuff. Now I'm just editing. Can I say that I love it?

I got an BA in English, with an emphasis in writing and editing. I worked for five years as a writer and editor at an educational software company, and you know what? One of my favorite parts of each of those was the proofreading/copy editing/nitpicking aspect. Though when I was still in school, I admit I had no clue what I was doing when it came to actually editing. Sure I could spout rules, but I'm convinced editing isn't something you can be taught. It comes with lots and lots of practice.

I'm a little over halfway done copy editing Bound, and then I'll get to go back in and make all those changes to the soft copy. (I cannot proofread on the computer to save my life. I have to print it out and let my red pen bleed on the paper.) And I get an immense sense of satisfaction seeing all those little red marks dancing all over the pages.

For the Love of Reading and Writing

I was recently contacted by Cassandra Day, a young fan and aspiring writer, for an interview. You can check out said interview here.

I think it's awesome that tweens and teenagers get so into reading and so into writing. They're developing amazing talents and creating a lifelong friend in reading. My love of reading has been such a gift to me ever since I was little. I loved reading Berenstein Bears and Dr. Seuss and Amelia Bedelia. I could read them for hours. I remember when I was "too old" for those books and raiding my younger siblings' shelves for my old books, just for the nostalgia and pleasure of reading them again.

I devoured Walter Farley and Lloyd Alexander and choose-your-own-adventure stories when I got a little older.

I devoured just about anything I could get my hands on when I got a little older than that.

Today I devour whatever I can when I get a few minutes.

So when a young fan emails me and asks if they can interview me? Of course. If I can do anything to encourage their love of reading and writing, you better believe I'm going to say yes. Because I was one of those kids.

"Never Give Up, Never Surrender"

If any of you have seen the hilarious Galaxy Quest (one of my all-time favorite movies, by the way), you'll recognize the quote. And here's what we're dealing with today:

I recently did a Q&A with Danica Page. In that interview, she asked me what I would tell a writer who just wanted to give it all up. It's a poignant question, and one that made me think about my own journey as a writer.

I started writing stories when I was young, but I started this get-published journey about eleven years ago with the dream of finding an agent, being picked up by a publishing house, going on a book tour, you know, fame and riches and all that stuff.

I attended writing conferences, made great connections, met wonderful agents and editors, researched who to send my novel to, and shipped it off. And my grandiose dreams were dashed, big time. Sure, I received some personalized rejection letters, but they were rejection letters, and let's face it: rejection is rejection no matter how lovely the packaging and how kind the wording. Sometimes I think a form rejection is better than a personalized one, just because I had the feeling of "I was this close."

After a year of being rejected, I decided to stop with the self-torture and put writing to the side. I came back to it now and again, but I wasn't in it full force the way I had been. And I was a mommy now and there just wasn't the time as I tried to get my mind wrapped around giving everything to this little infant. But there came a moment here and there when that calmed down, and I got the idea for The Burn, and bam! I had the writing itch again and I slammed into it full-force.

But then I looked at my life and what I wanted. Did I want to have firm deadlines from a publishing house? No. I was pregnant with my second and I was lucky if I could stay awake through the afternoon, more or less write so many thousand words to meet a deadline. Did I want to deal with appearances and book signings and getting out there and marketing? No. I had snot and drool and other assorted bodily fluids on my clothes and was just so exhausted by the end of the day that the idea made me shudder. And the big one:

Was having a best seller really that important to me? Do I need to have an army of publishing experts behind me to make me feel validated?

I'll admit it: I would love to have my name recognized, I would love for masses of people to know about my books, and having a publishing house helps immensely with that. But more importantly, I want people to read my books and have an emotional connection, be entertained. Do I have to write a best seller to be happy? No. I need my husband and my girls to be happy. That's what makes me happy.

So I researched self publishing and ran full tilt at it. Now my books are out there. I've done publicity for my books from my own computer where I don't have to worry if I'm the human Kleenex for the day, and people have bought my books and people have loved them. That was really my goal all along.

Do I feel like I backed away from my goal just because I was rejected? Not at all. I just found the venue that works best for where I am in my life right now.

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. I have. I'm exhausted now. From being with family, eating gobs of food with family, running around the park with the kids just about every day, going to the museum, eating more hand-dipped chocolates (my mother-in-law's specialty--a blessing and a curse!), watching football, eating more treats, and just having a good time, I'm tired to the bones.

And now I get to make new goals for the year. I need to go running more. My hips and rear demand it. I want to be a better wife and mother. And I want to write. Golly, do I want to write. I'm going to finish Bound (I'll be finishing up the current draft within the next week. Then we'll see where I stand on it.) I need to write and finish The Reaping. And I have ideas tossing around in my head for a fun, decidedly paranormal series that I've got the itch for. It'll be a good year.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I have been totally slacking off on the writing. I think it's been about a week since I've opened the file on my computer. Seriously. I haven't gone that long without writing in a long time.

Last week was crazy, of course. Cookies to make, presents to wrap, presents to buy (frantically, I might add--shopping is pure insanity this time of year), Christmas cards to address. You know. The things that signal that Christmas is right around the corner. I love all of it. But I didn't get any writing done.

Now I'm listening to popcorn pop, my husband and bro-in-law are watching football, I'm hanging out with my sisses-in-law and mom-in-law, and I'm having a great time just enjoying the magic of the season. And I'm still not writing.

But you know, that's okay. This time is supposed to be enjoyed. I can always write tomorrow. Though I really am starting to get the itch...

Blogging Blahs

So I've been feeling just a little "eh" about my blog lately. I realize the last few posts have just been redirects to other blogs I've been featured on. And I'd like to thank those fabulous bloggers for not only getting the word out about my books, but also giving me a few posts in the process.

I was thinking today about why in the world I've had zero inspiration for what to blog about, and you know what? I think I figured it out. It's because I'm completely immersed in Bound right now.

I got my edits back a few weeks ago, and I've been working hard to get them done. But for me, rewrites require a lot more brain power than writing the first draft. I know I've talking about rewrites before, but I'll say it again, they're a doozy. But don't mistake me, I'm not complaining, and I'm having a lot of fun tightening up certain aspects of the story and expounding on others. Just generally figuring out what works and what doesn't, you know?

And it's mentally exhausting. After working on them for an hour or two, I find myself going (with my eyes slightly glazed over), "What in the world am I going to write about now?" And the blog slides quickly away to the back-burner. Where it, you know, gets burned because you forget about whatever is cooking on the stove behind the great big stock pot.

So how's this for a blog post? A sampling of the bad metaphors I create after I've been devoting my intellect and creativity to rewriting. But can I say one more thing? I love Bound. Truly. I love the story and I love the characters, and I'm definitely not sick of it yet. Which is always a good sign.

Doing the Rewrite Dance

I'll be getting feedback from my beta reader any minute now, which means I'm getting ready to work on Bound rewrites. I may have mentioned before that I love rewrites. Most of you out there who have written anything might call me a sadist. Most people hate rewrites. It's work, it's not fun, it's so much easier to just vomit on the page (aka writing the first draft).

That's all true, I'll admit it.

It is work. There are times when I look at my work and say, "What was I thinking?" But still I love it. Even as I was writing the first draft of Bound, I had changes and additions I wanted to incorporate. Changes like:

• Boring scene! Ack! Boring scene. Help it, please!
• Add a little more romance between Wyn and Tom. Yup, the cute boy is named Tom. And no, I'm not giving away more details than that. But this story is definitely more romantic than my previous two novels have been. It just really fit the mood. And Wyn just really needed a nice guy in her life.
• Add more details of x (you remember jr. high algebra when you always solved for x?) so that a + x = b. Don't worry, there's no math involved, but it's that whole I'm-not-giving-away-details thing. But the point of the equation was to show that looking at the entire story allowed me to see what was missing so I could fill in more details early on. You know, the whole foreshadowing thing.

While I was writing the first draft, I didn't let those ideas slow me down. I just made a note of it and then plunged ahead until everything was on the page. Then when I was done with the first draft, I took a deep breath, enjoyed my sense of accomplishment for two minutes, and then proceeded to dive into my rewrites.

I guess I like rewrites so much because it's like a puzzle. I get that from my grandma. She can sit and work on jigsaw puzzles for hours. Doing that makes my eyes go buggy, but it's the same idea. Take the little pieces, decide how they fit and then make a big, beautiful picture.

It Makes My Day

I heard from one of my readers that she stayed up late into the night because she had to finish The Burn.

Being an author is hard work. I probably spend more time promoting my book than I do writing. I hope one day that won't be the case, but as I'm just getting started, that's the way it has to be right now. When I finish doing marketing stuff for the day, and I switch over to writing, my brain just breathes a sigh of relief and says, "Finally. This is what I love."

The writing is what I live for. But if I want my book to go anywhere, then I need to work for it, and work I do. Sometimes I get so frustrated I want to yank my hair out and rant for a few hours and just throw something. Don't worry. Nothing was harmed in the making of my novels.

But then I hear comments from readers like "I stayed up late just to finish it," and suddenly all the frustration melts away and all the work I've put into it is totally worth it. Because I know that feeling when I have to stay up late to finish a good book, and I'm so grateful to the author for all the hard work that went into the book.

So to you readers who've read and enjoyed The Burn and Dragon Sister, thank you. Thanks for reading. Thanks for making me smile.

When the Muse Strikes

Today I was working on a blog feature for April at My Shelf Confessions. (I'll let you know when it gets posted there.) She asked me to talk about where I write and where I get my best ideas. I've heard lots of authors talk about this subject, and the answers are varied and many. A sampling: while walking, while outside, while in the shower, while on the toilet (eww, by the way), while lying in bed, etc. For the sake of the feature, I wrote about getting my ideas in the car. It's a quiet place where I don't have to worry about the girls running amok. But it's too simple an answer.

I get my ideas anywhere and everywhere. I'm busy with life, with my daughters, being a good wife for my sweet husband, taking care of myself and my writing time, fulfilling my responsibilities at church. You get the picture. And with how much I have going on, I can't afford to be picky where my inspiration comes from.

So I write everything down. My weapon of choice?

 

I love these notebooks. I buy them at Target and these particular ones are by greenroom. I love them because they're cute and cheap and don't fall apart when I look at them.

I try to always have my notebook and a pen with me, because as much as you think you get your best ideas when you're walking the dog, or fixing dinner, or shut in the water closet (what kind of ideas do you get in there? I mean really, it's quite gross), you just never know when the idea will come. And if you're like me, if it doesn't get written down, it gets forgotten as soon as one of my girls asks for a snack, or the phone rings, or my husband needs his shirt washed.

And I don't want to forget any ideas, because you never know which one will be the best one.

Emotional Truth

One of the things I learned in my English classes at BYU that's really stuck with me is about emotional truth. Stories are just that: stories, and their name implies fiction. But if you fill stories with emotional truth, those things we all feel because we're human and we live in real life, then stories will feel true, even if they're about dragons or dystopian societies, and we will be able to relate to them.

Writing is my escape from real life, my creative outlet to stay sane and stave off the mommy-brain-rot. I thrive when I dream up new places and new plots. But real life hit us hard this week when we learned my husband's dear father passed away.

I'm sad. Sad for my husband who won't get to hug his father again, and sad for my mother-in-law, and sad for my two girls who won't get to know their grandpa better, and sad I won't get to see this man that always had a smile and a kind word for me. Right now I'm just trying to take care of the hearts of the people I've been entrusted with. I know we will all see him again, after our turn in this wonderful life is done, but until then, it hurts and it feels too enormous to bear.

I've lost people I've loved before, but after the ache eases and lets go just a little bit, every day is easier to fall back into and resume those patterns that define our lives. It's not that we've forgotten the pain of loss, but a new sorrow is always a shock. I never want to forget that feeling, so I can appreciate life just a little bit more. We can't know how happy we've been until we know how sad we can feel.

That's as emotionally true as it gets.

Writing the First Draft

Several people have asked me how I write a first draft. And so in honor of finishing the first draft of my new project, I shall tell you all. Don't get too excited though, it's not a magical formula. It has changed a bit every time I've embarked on a new novel. I think every story is different, and so needs to be treated differently.

While writing my first novel (you know, the horrible one no one has read, the one no one will ever read, the one I think I've lost thank goodness), I used an outline. And I clung to that outline for dear life. It was my life line while writing that novel, and I can definitely say the story suffered because of it. There was no creative give or take. It was the outline or nothing.

From that experience, I decided to write Dragon Sister without an outline. I knew what the beginning was, what the ending was, and then the middle was a nebulous haze that I solidified as I wrote. It was refreshing and fun to write it that way, just the words spilling out as fast as my fingers could go. But it did require quite a bit of reworking...okay, a lot of reworking...to get the flow of the story where it needed to be.

Then onto The Burn. That novel was interesting to write because I had an outline created for me. Since it's inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's A Little Mermaid, the main plot points are there: Terra comes from the bottom of the ocean, she goes up on land, she falls in love, etc. (I don't want to put too many spoilers since it's still such a new book, but if you're familiar with the original fairytale, you'll know those plot points, and the ick factor involved in a couple of them) And so I had that basic skeleton for the story, and I added the flesh to it. But the final version is very different from that initial draft. The initial draft was boring. But I think the process of rewriting should be its own post.

And now my new project. I liked the way The Burn came together with having the main plot points and then rounding out the story. So that's what I did with my current novel, and it's been a lot of fun working with it that way, tweaking the basic outline along the way. It was a good way to get the story arc put together and not meander in the middle.

And that's how I've done a first draft. Like I said, no magic formula. I've changed it up for every novel. For me, the most important part of a first draft is to get the words out. All the perfectionism and beautiful language and story tweaking can come later. And you know what? It's been a blast every single time.

Something to Be Proud Of

I write clean reads, and I'm not apologetic about it. It's one of the reasons I decided to be an indie author. I wanted absolute control over that aspect of my writing.

As my small collection of novels grows on my shelf, I love knowing that my girls can look at the covers, and as they learn how much fun this reading thing is, that they'll be able to read them some day, and I won't worry about it. There's nothing in there I'm afraid for them to read.

There are so many books on the market today that just aren't appropriate for kids to be reading. It's a miniscule ripple in a great big pond I'm making, but at least the option is out there for kids or parents who are looking for books that don't have profanity and don't have sexual references. Because really, does that stuff need to be in there? I don't think so.