Insecure writer: where did my voice go?

The first Wednesday of the month
 is time for Insecure Writers Support Group,
hosted by Alex Cavanaugh and his
excellent team. 

I'm pretty sure I've posted about this before: of all the problems that confound writers, the thing I feel most insecure about is "voice" - that unique, almost undefinable expression or way of looking at, talking about or showing the world that every artist needs.  I am struggling with voice, AGAIN.  A crit partner re-read my first chapter of Star Tripped, which I showed her oh-so-proudly because I streamlined it (very nicely, I thought) thanks to help from my PitchWars coach. And she agreed, oh yes, this is good... but one problem, your 2nd main character sounds pretty much like your first main character. He needs a more distinct voice. 

Ah yes, my old nemesis: my characters sounding too much alike. I'm already insecure about my own voice, not to mention my characters' voices.  (Truly writers are odd creatures: the only people who WANT more voices in their heads!)  

Issue #1:  I've been thinking for two weeks now about how to give this guy a more unique voice. And it hasn't come to me yet. 

Issue #2:  I recognize my voice when I read it, when it comes spilling out of its own accord, but I can't force it, and lately it seems to be really scarce. I think a major reason being is this whole past year I've been doing nothing but revisions, and almost no fresh drafting. Can you edit out your voice? Can you edit it back in? 

Fortunately, another writer here in Laramie, Emily Moore (@EGMoorewriter) found me online (I live in a small town, this is close to a miracle, connecting with another kidlit writer!) and we got together and decided to  start a local writers group.  I have another friend who just recently moved here who was also interested. So we had our first meeting this week and we did a 15 minute writing prompt exercise, and a 15 minute free write.  I know that free writing and prompt writing are both excellent exercises to tease voices out (and new ideas!) but it's really hard for me to push myself to do these on my own.  Or in the online writing community.  Sometimes there's just no replacement for meeting face to face with other writers!

How do you find your voice? And your characters' voices? 

Favorite blogs and ones I deeply miss

Hosted by Andrew Leon, Alex J. Cavanaugh, and Matthew MacNish

Do you have a couple blogger buddies who aren’t posting as often? Those who’ve pulled back and seem absent from the blogging world? Do you have blogger buddies you are grateful they are still around and would miss if they vanished? 

Three bloggers I miss the most are: 

Jackee at Winded Words. Here's one of my favorite old posts: When to give up writing (but it's not about giving up, at all) 

Victoria Dixon. Loves historical fantasy (my favorite genre!), especially based in Asia. 

Taherah Mafi. Author of Shatter Me. She's very active on Twitter, but I miss her blogging, where you could get longer doses of writerly humor and insight. 

Blogger buddies I'm grateful are still around posting regularly:

Julie Dao at Silver Linings. One of the first writer blogs I started following. I love all her posts, ALL OF THEM. Here's a good recent one, on Your own approval. 

Melissa Marsh, novelist and historian. Always honest and open and insightful, as in this post The Long Road to Acceptance.

Saumya Dave at Left and Write Brained. So many thoughtful posts, like On Purpose


I could list so many more. Tell me your favorite blogs, the ones you read every single post from!

I'll be back the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to share some things I'm thankful for. In the meantime, I'm taking a blogging break during my favorite time of year: NaNoWriMo!

Secondary characters, shiny new ideas, and keister calls

Five things that made my writer's heart all happy this past week or so:

1. I missed signing up for the Secondary Characters Bloghop in May but boy I sure had fun running across other blogs participating. My favorite was Heather's at The Flyleaf Review because she did this cool classification of types of secondary characters and really got me thinking about what makes a great secondary character and why I love them so much. She also mentioned some of my favorites: Orma from Seraphina, Brimstone from Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Grimalkin from the Iron Fey... and a ton more.

2.  Nathan Bransford posted "How to Know You are a Writer" (in .gif form) yesterday and all the gifs made me nod my head and feel the universal brotherhood/sisterhood/insanity-hood of writers.

3. Janet Sumner Johnson shares about what it's like when you get a Shiny New Idea that you can't wait to write about... and she does this even more brilliantly than Bransford (sorry, Nathan) because she uses all her own pictures to tell the story, instead of gifs collected across the web. Bonus: not one but two reference to... Squirrel!

4. Authoress over at Miss Snark's First Victim blog shared something wonderful about writing - it's really worth reading the whole post, but here's what struck me the most. Reading it just made me want to jump up  and hug her and scream "Yes! I know exactly what you mean! OMGosh someone else feels the same way as me????"

...Yes, that novel. The one that is SO BAD that I will have to leave instructions in my will for someone to destroy it.  The one that marked the beginning of my journey as a serious writer; the one that lit my fire... Know what's special about that horrible-awful-no-good tome?  (All 127,000 words of it??)  It's infused with the passion of writing from a purely creative place.  I had no idea about point of view, pacing, or purple prose.  I'd never heard of an inciting incident; didn't know what "character arc" meant....The absolute joy of losing myself in this world is immeasurable...

Sorry, I can't help it, I have to say that again: The absolute joy of losing myself in this world is immeasurable.  That's it, people, that's the core of why I write. Having others read it and enjoy it is just icing on the cake.

5.  This has nothing to do with writing but KLOVE radio had me BUST UP LAUGHING when the deejays talked about when you forget your cell phone in your back pocket and then you sit on it and place a random call by accident. They called it a Keister Call. I'm still grinning thinking of all the accidental keister calls I've made. 

Have you had a keister call or a squirrel! moment recently? 

A mind-bending new take on djinnis (genies)

From the moment I read the premise of The Binding Stone, by Lisa Gail Green, I knew I wanted to read this book,  because y'all know how I love:

Mythical creatures! Check - not just one, but three djinnis (genies)

Trickery and entrapment! Plenty of it here.

Betrayed love! ouch, but oh so intriguing.

And true love... happily, that too, plus a wild ride as Leela and Taj, my favorite djinnis, figure out how to evade commands from their masters, twisting interpretations of the commands and using clever tricks. There's some serious genius that went into this story!

So I tracked down this serious genius (turns out she has a lighter side, too) and interviewed her. Welcome, Lisa Gail Green:

Describe your book in seven words. Hah!

Betrayed Djinni rediscovers love and trust. HA! Did it in six. Sort of. That doesn't really do all the action justice, but what can I say?

What would be the first thing you'd wish for if you had a djinn like Leela?

I used to think of all sorts of things, including having a best-seller! But after writing this book? The first thought in my head was, 'I would never be able to ask a genie for anything.'

Is there a message in The Binding Stone that you want readers to grasp?

Yes. But is it cheating to say it? It's really about control. That no matter how bad the situation you are dealt, no matter how unfair, you can still be YOU.

Are the experiences in the Binding Stone based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

Yes. I am a Djinni. Ha! No. BUT I do have a fear of losing control, which manifests in many ways. So I guess I was putting some part of myself in the worst situation.

One thing I've always remembered from your blog posts on writing is how you've said we need to go places where we are afraid to go. Where were you afraid to go with the Binding Stone?

I was afraid to go to the dark place. To let Leela be tortured and mistreated the way she was. This is for kids after all! But I also think teens can handle it. Many have to handle it for real unfortunately. And for those that haven't, a book is the safest place to learn about other situations and explore differences whatever they may be. I think in the end I struck a good balance between what was spelled out and what wasn't. 

If you could be any character in fiction, who would you pick and why?

Oooh. I know I've seen it used a LOT, but I have to say Hermione. She's smart, talented, magical, and just all around awesome!

Oh my yes, a girl who can be dangerous holding a book, she's my choice too!

Leela's already been interviewed here, but I did manage to corner Taj, another Djinni, and ask him a  couple questions:

I see Leela worked for Mozart for a while. If you could pick any master in the world (famous person), who would you pick and why?

Honey, that's like me asking how you'd prefer to die. But if I MUST pick… I do like Brad Pitt. He's a hotty. Or maybe Lady Gaga - she looks like she'd be tons of fun. Unpredictable is less boring. Don't look at me like that. I wasn't going to pick Mother Teresa. I'd hate to have been responsible for her falling from grace. *winks*

Funny you should mention Brad Pitt,  Taj, because as I was reading this story, your character kinda reminded me of him a few times. Indulge me for a moment:

You've known Leela for centuries. In this latest escapade with her, did you learn anything new about her? Did you learn anything new about yourself?

Lee? She's so emo. I hope she finally realizes how strong she is and that some things are out of her control. Women. Me? I already know everything worth knowing, the rest as they say is excess baggage. Apple? *pulls fruit from air* *chews and thinks* I suppose I did learn that even I can still be surprised by a human now and then.

Thank you, Lisa and Taj!  Here's the official blurb on The Binding Stone:

Tricked into slavery by the man she loved, the Djinni Leela has an eternity to regret her choices.

Awakened in the prison of her adolescent body, she finds a new master in possession of the opal that binds her. But seventeen-year-old Jered is unlike any she’s seen. His kindness makes Leela yearn to trust again, to allow herself a glimmer of hope.

Could Jered be strong enough to free her from the curse of the Binding Stone?

"I dream of Lisa Gail Green! The Binding Stone is magical in so many ways. My Djinn asks for my third wish? The sequel, of course!" - NYT bestselling author Nancy Holder

"Genies like you’ve never seen them, THE BINDING STONE is a wild ride of treachery and deception. For my first wish, I’d like a sequel, please." - PERSONAL DEMONS author Lisa Desrochers

And, I have a little excerpt from my Goodreads review here to tempt you even further: 

I love how with all her centuries of experience with human masters, Leela's completely perplexed by Jered, her new master. His nature is so different from anything she’s encountered before, though there are things about him that also worry her:  "His eyes remind me of Achan’s, dark as oil. Enough years have passed, yet still my throat clenches at the thought."

This first mention of Achan immediately intrigued me. I wanted to know more about this bit of Leela’s history, and I was thrilled to discover that the chapters in present time are paralleled with chapters from a thousand years earlier, when Leela fell [spoiler removed].

I love present-time and past-time threaded stories. Love, love, love! The Binding Stone weaves the past and present together delicately and relentlessly. 

If you'd like a chance to win The Binding Stone, plus some other goodies, head over to Lisa Gail Green's giveaway here.

Third culture kids and teen grief

I don't devote a post to a book unless I have learned something valuable from it that I want to share with others. Never Gone, by Laurel Garver, is one I immediately knew I wanted - needed  - to share.

I'll post my own thoughts on Never Gone coming up in December (my blog is shutting down during November for NaNoWriMo). In the meantime, here's the word on third culture kids and teen grief straight from Laurel (who by the way is in the thick of it with Hurricane Sandy right now. Many thoughts and prayers going out for all my east coast friends and family).

What is your novel Never Gone about?

A grieving teen believes her dead father has come back as a ghost to help her reconcile with her estranged mother.

That’s my most brief synopsis. My favorite synopsis is the trailer:


Your main character is a New Yorker with an American mother and a British father. How do cross-cultural issues affect the family?

American and British social rules differ more that you might think. When I studied abroad there, I struggled to get anyone to talk to me. The other British students were friendly with one another, but standoffish with us exchange students. There are rules to the game of getting inside the high walls of privacy that aren’t immediately apparent to outsiders. I didn’t get fully clued in to how these rules worked until my third visit to the UK, when the friends my husband and I were visiting pointed me to Kate Fox’s Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour. It became one of my most useful research books.

Because Britain’s large population is crammed into a small space, personal privacy is highly valued. That’s a major component of why my protagonist’s parents’ marriage works. The mother likes to keep her past in the past and her emotions under wraps, so what could be better than a partner who won’t expect American levels of emotiveness? Humor is also a huge component of communication in Britain, and thus the father’s forte. Any hard-hitting or critical remark is likely to be couched in humor. Embarrassingly tender feelings can be, too.

My protagonist Danielle is what is sometimes called a “third-culture kid”—someone who lives in one culture, but whose family comes from a different culture; he or she teeters precariously between cultures, never fully belonging to either one. Thus Dani struggles with expressing her deepest feelings, suppressing and self-managing more than the typical American teen might. Yet she also wants to call others out for doing the very same thing, her mother in particular. Losing her British father requires Dani to reassess how she fits in the world, and how to reconcile with her American half.

What is unique about teen grief?

When you’re young, it’s harder to deal with major losses because you don’t have experience to draw on that puts the pain in perspective. “Time heals all wounds” is not lived experience; it sounds like a stupid platitude adults say to shut you down. Grief feels overwhelming and absolutely impossible to overcome. Add to that the usual stuff of adolescence—hormonal changes and an identity that’s still under construction—and you can understand why grief can be especially difficult, even explosive for teens.

What’s unique about your approach to grief in the story?

I was particularly interested in exploring the immediate grief experience — those turbulent first weeks immediately after a death. My novel begins a few days after the protagonist loses her dad and the story covers approximately three weeks’ time. Danielle spends much of the story cycling through denial, anger, and bargaining. There are moments of depression and glimpses of what acceptance will look like when it fully flowers. Most of the deepest grief work is still to come for Dani, but the events of the novel prepare her to begin to earnestly do that work, rather than deny or flee from it.

Because of her family culture, Dani especially struggles with feelings of anger. It is one of the toughest emotions to keep under wraps or deflect and soften with humor. She also mistakenly believes that anger has no place in a life of faith. I hope this story will encourage kids growing up in a faith tradition that it’s okay to really wrestle with God in places of deep pain. One of Dani’s friends tells her, “I think God can handle it when we’re mad.” He goes on to point out that large chunks of scripture are at root complaints to God. The Psalmist and other saints of old give us models for talking (and hollering and crying) to our Creator honestly about our pain, which at root is an expression of faith that He hears, cares, comforts and makes things new.

Laurel Garver is a magazine editor, professor’s wife and mom to an energetic fourth grader. An indie film enthusiast and incurable Anglophile, she enjoys geeking out about Harry Potter and Dr. Who, playing word games, singing, and mentoring teens at her church. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Keeping open minds

“Books open your mind, broaden your mind, and strengthen you as nothing else can.”  ~ William Feather


Susan Kaye Quinn's book Open Minds is available today, November 1 - to celebrate she is hosting a Virtual Launch Party. Leave a comment on any of her Party posts (including this one!) or tweet about #keepingOpenMinds, and you qualify to win one of several prizes.

The title, Open Minds, has a double-meaning. The main character, Kira, has a disability: she's unable to read minds or have her thoughts read by others in her world. It means she is branded as untrustworthy because she can keep her thoughts secret. She doesn't have an "open mind" - and yet she's treated with intolerance by mind-readers, who refuse to have an "open mind" or understanding of her situation.

I loved Susan's description of truly open minds:

Open minds treat you with respect, instead of snubbing you for being too strange or too new or too foreign or too shy.

Open minds are compassionate, giving you a hand up when you are down, instead of pretending they don't see your pain or piling on when the pack attacks.

Open minds accept you, treating you like the flawed, unique, wonderful person that you are, instead of judging you by your looks, skin color, or accent.

In the same post Susan also shared her own #keepingOpenMinds story - a situation where someone she least expected turned out to be open-minded and encouraging about her desire to become an astronaut. Her story inspired me to share my own #keepingOpenMinds story.

My mom comes from a large family - seven siblings who don't have the greatest reputation for getting along. Mom has always been the peace-keeper in the family. Sometimes I wonder why she keeps trying; I feel dizzy trying to keep track of who is angry at who and for what reason. There was one particular time when one of her siblings reacted in a way that upset the rest of the family, including me. But my mom remained a staunch supporter.

"How could you?" I asked her. "After what he/she did?"

"Take a moment and look at the background behind the situation," my mother told me. She explained some of the history of her sibling's marriage and some things the spouse had been through, too. This history had a lot to do with the way my mom's sibling reacted. It really opened my eyes (and my mind). 

For the first time, that old adage "don't a judge a person unless you've taken the time to walk in their shoes" sunk in with me. It stirred compassion in my heart, and helped me to listen more and judge less in many other situations since then - in my family, my husband's family, in work situations and other situations.

I also believe, like the quote at the top of this post, that reading helps develop open minds - because you are exposed to so many situations in reading (many that you encounter in real life and many you may not yet have encountered). You get to hear the characters' take on these situations, sometimes multiple characters seeing the situation from different angles, and you see why they react the way they do.

We live in a big world with so much to learn and discover. So many people and all of them unique and valuable in some way. All the differences may seem overwhelming and intimidating, but we can overcome fearfulness with compassion and with an attitude of delighting to learn more by seeing the world through other peoples' perspectives. 

Yay for #keepingOpenMinds! You can read the first chapter of Open Minds here, it's amazing and mesh. (You gotta read it to know what "mesh" means). I can't wait to read more.

Some other #keepingOpenMinds stories are shared today by:

Heather McCorkle 

S.B. Stuart-Laing (from Glasgow Scotland!)

Jemi Fraser

PK Herzo

Christine Fonseca

Katie Mills

Jessie Harrell

J.C. Martin

Denny S. Bryce

Danyelle Leafty

A quick personal note - NaNoWriMo starts today so I'll be taking a break from the blog until December. But, I got one last post in - my very first GUEST POST!!!!! - today, over at T.L. Conway's blog. I posted on why I love NaNoWriMo so much, with lots of gushy gushing and enthusing and maybe one realistic "oh what have I gotten myself into" moment too. Please stop by!

Back to #keepingOpenMinds. Have you ever been in a situation where someone could have judged you, but instead, they listened to you or encouraged you?

Blogging is not a waste of time

I do worry sometimes that my time online is not productive.

I think we should be wise how much time we spend online, especially if it has the potential to interrupt real-world relationships.

And for fiction writers, I think we should write first and blog later.

But in the end, blogging gives back more in fun, inspiration, help, camaraderie, and motivation than it takes in terms of time.

Without an online community of writers, I wouldn't have found out about NaNoWriMo a few years ago. I've never seen it mentioned yet off-line, even though it's huge, with hundreds of thousands of people participating.

I've read (and applied) more helpful advice from blogs of writing professionals and amateurs in a year than I got from reading paper publications-that-shall-not-be named for many, many years. Primarily because you can immediately respond and get responses; it's not a one-way street. That makes it more meaningful, more valuable. Not sure exactly about the economics behind that, but I believe its true.

Other bloggers share their creativity and it is so cool how it sparks creativity in me, too. How we all bounce ideas and tips and blogfests and good reads and our bad days and good days around and off each other and it ends up being more than the sum of its parts.

Thank you Sophia Richardson for mentioning your idea of 30 pitches in 30 days and then following through with lots of great tips and experiences and, of course, pitches.

Thank you Katherine Owens for sharing that Edittorrent post (yes, this one here) and its ticking clock that sparked a HUGE flood of crazy-cool ideas for the NaNoWriMo outline I'm working on right now.

Thank you T.L. Conway for inviting me to write my VERY FIRST guest post in honor of NaNoWriMo - it's not 'til next week but check out the other great guests at her blog this week and next for the "Write What You NaNo" Blog Party.

Thank you Susan Kaye Quinn for getting me to think about #keepingOpenMinds (yippee! - come back for my #keepingOpenMinds post next Tuesday, November 1st!)

T.Y. Lisa Gail Green for paranormal analogies that make me bust my gut laughing and keep me taking notes at the same time.

Thx Saumya Dave for sharing thoughts and quotes and lessons learned and Audrey Hepburn pictures.

And Thank you Stina Lindenblatt for cool links and Old Kitty for Charlie pictures and Janet Johnson for all the awesome license plates and I could go on and on and on. And thank you kind readers for coming back to visit me and leave comments. I'm always amazed.

Not quite sure what prompted all the gushing. Really, all I meant to do was share one last pitch I came up with before I end the 30 pitches in 30 days blogfest (a few days early, I'm afraid) so I can focus all brain cells fiercely on last minute prep for NaNoWriMo. (Less than a week away!)

This last pitch was inspired by a Stuart Little first reader my seven-year-old daughter picked out, with a library owl in it. A library owl! Just go and combine two of my favorite things: libraries and talking animals! Put them together and presto: happiness and inspiration. And just when I was feeling a little guilty borrowing someone else's published idea to springboard my own imagination, here's a great post from Sophia Richardson that addresses just this very issue, pretty much guilt-free. 

So here's my last pitch, way too wordy, I know, but hey - it's a work in progress.

The library has its owl, the post office its possum, and the gym its very in-shape panther, but school's about to start and its guardian fox is missing. 12 yr old book worm Branden is sure one of his four-legged friends could fill in, but the pixies in the art room and the bullies on the playground have other ideas.

Back to gushing about blogging. I missed the Pay it Forward blogfest last week, but I guess the spirit of it reached me just the same. Please tell me some of your favorite blogs that keep you coming back for tips, inspiration, fun or friends. I'd love to visit them.

The Ranch Next Door

I'm excited to host Elisabeth Foley here today, a blogging friend I met last year who was brave enough to answer my interview questions! 

She's just published a collection of short stories titled The Ranch Next Door. Westerns - yay! I'm a westerner! (well, transplanted myself to Wyoming from New York 16 years ago, that counts doesn't it?) I have ranches next door to me, too - so much fun! (unless loose cattle and wild antelope block the road when I'm running late to work). 

Elisabeth is giving away an e-version of the Ranch Next Door to a randomly-selected commenter on this post, so please share your thoughts. On to the interview (more details about the collection below).

What is your favorite word?

Indeed. Used as a surprised or thoughtful ejaculation, this word has become a staple of my family’s vocabulary since we became acquainted with one of our favorite BBC miniseries, Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. I love hearing it.

(Margo here - Indeed, Chuzzlewit is pretty cool word (name) too!)

What is your least favorite word?

Constructive. As a child, I always hated being dismissed with the sensible order, “Go find something constructive to do.” Now I’m just as likely to say the same thing to my younger siblings.

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

You know, I’m afraid when I get on a roll creatively, I’m too busy taking advantage of the fact to stop and think about what started it. Perhaps I should one day, so I can take advantage of that!

I’ve always been stirred emotionally by the beauty of nature. An unexpectedly beautiful view from a hill, the effect of sunlight through the trees, autumn color—well, I’m not too good at capturing in words the feeling it gives me. As L.M. Montgomery put it very simply in Anne of Green Gables, “It gave me a thrill and I just said, “Thank you for it, God.’ ”

If you were given a chance to travel back in time, what year or place would you go?

Actually, I think I’d pick the 1940s. Although I love writing about the later 1800s, I think I’d feel more at home in the 1940s—I love the fashions, the music, the small-town America and even some of the glamorous big-city life depicted in classic films from that era.

Describe your book in seven words or less:

Short stories, surprised sheriffs, appearances and disappearances.

Please share with us about your favorite book and fictional crush to date?

Favorite book? One favorite book? Oh, all right. Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley—historical novel of English explorers in the Elizabethan era. I’d say this is a book that transcends my usual tastes, because I’m not particularly interested in that period of history, but the book is just so tremendously entertaining that I always go back to it every once in a while.

Fictional crush? I’m too shy to answer that.

If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be?

Hmmm, I don’t know. Why not Anne of Green Gables? I’ve always wanted to live on a farm like that.

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?

Well, the only Hollywood I know anything about is old Hollywood. Perhaps Deanna Durbin. Lots of music and happy endings guaranteed.

(Margo here - had to include a picture of Deanna Durbin! I was curious)

How would you describe yourself in seven words?

Introvert, optimistic, absent-minded, incorrigibly imaginative, secretly romantic.

Thank you Elisabeth - I loved the incorrigibly imaginative and secretly romantic! Here's a little more about her collection:

The Ranch Next Door (available as an e-book from Amazon and Smashwords)

Suspense, humor and a touch of romance await in seven short stories of the American West. In the title story, "The Ranch Next Door," a cattleman's young son dreads breaking the news to his family that he has fallen in love with the daughter of a neighboring sheep rancher despite an ancient feud between the two families. In "Cross My Heart," a boy is torn between betraying his conscience or a fugitive friend, and in "Delayed Deposit," five people are taken hostage during a bank robbery that turns into a tense standoff. The collection also includes the award-winning "Disturbing the Peace," honorable mention in the 2010 Rope and Wire short story competition. These seven stories total approximately 40,330 words or 161 book pages.


Just so y'all know, cattle ranchers and sheep ranchers are sworn enemies on the range, and Elisabeth gives us a tale of starcrossed lovers within this conflict. Love it! So give us some comments on ranches, starcrossed lovers, Anne of Green Gables, beauties of the big screen in the black and white days, or anything else Elisabeth inspires in you today! I'll announce the winner of the Ranch Next Door early next week.

Two opinions on love triangles

Has the inundation of pictures of shirtless Taylor Lautner, brooding Robert Pattinson, and half-asleep Kristen Stewart made you utterly sick of love triangles yet?

A while ago, the great blog YA Highway posted an article on Why there are so many love triangles in young adult fiction, and some good reasons why maybe there shouldn't be.  Which I sort of agree with, in this respect: without a love triangle, the Twilight series would be a pretty dead series (awful pun, sorry).

But if you took the love triangle out of the Hunger Games series, you'd still have a strong story, don't you think?

I guess that's how I like my love triangles, an interesting "bonus" feature of the story, but not something the entire plot hangs on. 

When someone says Lord of the Rings, love triangle isn't the first thing that comes to mind, is it? Even though there's definitely some added tension in the Aragorn/Arwen love story when Eowyn shows up.

Which leads to my second opinon, if you'll humor me. Arwen/Aragorn/Eowyn love triangle is the only female-male-female* triangle I've found so far... so this leads me to think a) this type of love triangle can really work and b) it certainly hasn't been over-exploited yet! Though there are really lots of other trianglish opportunities out there, as I discovered on the mind-boggling TV Tropes website.

Blast me with your opinions, please!

*another complaint I've heard related to paranormal YA a lot is the girls falling for much older "boys".  Now granted Lord of the Rings isn't YA and was written over 50 years ago, but it was breaking conventions even then: Aragorn falls for an elf-girl many hundreds of years older than him :-)


This is a really me-centered post today because first of all I have drenched you with my opinions and next I go on to say I've won a the Versatile blog award from Jenna Cooper and the Irrestisibly Sweet Blog award from Amy (Ramblings of Amy). Thank you!

I'm passing these awards on to some new friends I've made in the blogging world:

Melissa Marsh at Writing with Style - she's a fellow history lover, like me

Ghenet Mythril at All About Them Words - she writes YA and I love her YA Cafe posts

Bethany Elizabeth at Ink-Splattered - she writes fantasy and YA and she's got this great How-To-Write-Guide based on Nintendo - that has some really intereting points!

Tanya Reimer at Life's Like That - she's a fellow crusader and writes Urban Fantasy and I'm longing to find out more about her immortal "whisperers"

Lyn Kelley at Random Acts of Writing - she writes about pirates and has a treasure map as her computer wallpaper. I'm hooked. (pardon the pirate pun).

I've also been tagged by Lisa Gail Green, Julie Dao and  Sophia Richardson.

But guess what? I really don't think the world needs to know anymore about the last time we all ate chicken meat. So I have CHANGED the questions (I know! I'm probably breaking some cosmic internet rule here!) And next I'm doing something even more potentially dangerous: I'm STEALING questions from the great blog Fantastic Book Reviews, because I love the questions. But I'm giving her credit, so it's okay, I hope.

If you were given a chance to travel back in time, what year or place would you go?

Ancient Greece and Rome - ever since reading the Illiad and Ben Hur, these have been my favorite time periods. Another great book set in ancient Rome is A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers.

Describe your writing work-in-progress (Handful of Scars) in seven words or less?

End of Rome, handsome Huns, troublesome genies.

Please share with us about your favorite book and fictional crush to date?

An obscure book few have heard of: Green Grass of Wyoming by Mary O'Hara. Ken McLaughlin is way too young for me, but there you go. This book is why I moved to Wyoming.

If you could be any character in fiction, whom would you be?

Carey from the above mentioned book, but since nobody knows her, my second choice is Lucy Pevensie from Chronicles of Narnia (not the girl from the movie version, though she's cute too).

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?

Liv Tyler, because she's my favorite actress, though about the only thing we have in common is we're brunettes. Oh well.

How would you describe yourself in seven words?

Dreamer, writer, geographer, wife, mom, Christian, friend

Pretty much everyone I know has been tagged already! But if you are interested in answering my new set of (stolen) questions, let me know, because I'd love to do some interviews here of my friends.

A bit of writing wisdom from Elana Johnson

The winner of the Possession ARC is Jill Hathaway! And I noticed she's having a giveaway right now for a another new release book, so head on over there.

More about Elana Johnson's writing wisdom here in a minute, but first, here's my Round of Words in 80 days progress report. I'm picking up momentum, finally. It's day 32 out of 80, or 40% of the way. I sure wish I was 40% of the way done with revisions on my novel (only about 10%), but my re-writes did total over 5000 words this week, and I'm famous for hunkering down on the keyboard and getting the work done when deadlines start breathing down my neck. So give me some heavy-duty breathing, okay?

Here's progress reports from my ROW80 friends, Susan Kaye Quinn, Sheri Larsen and C. Lee McKenzie.

Just a reminder: I'm on a blogging break for the month of May - except for my Tuesday progress reports - so ya'll can keep me accountable to my writing goals. I am really missing all my regular blog stops, but you guys know I'll BE BACK (said in my best Terminator voice).

Okay, on to the good stuff. I couldn't help but gush to Elana (on her blog) when I received the ARC of her beautiful book in the mail. I told her I would be doing a giveaway, and did she have anything to share? And of course she did - because she's Elana. #elanalove. Here it is:


5 most important things I've learned on the road to publication:


1. Patience is absolutely necessary.


2. There are some things you can't control. Give it up already. You'll be happier.


3. Find people you can confide in. Use them regularly.


4. Writing for publication is a lot different than just writing.


5. Be grateful for every step. Once you take it, you can't take it again.

I love how she mentions control in tip #2. Since her book is all about control issues, ya know.
She also shared her motto. It's from Galaxy Quest.
 
Never give up, never surrender.
 
My motto these days is from Finding Nemo - slightly modified:
 
Just keep writing. Just keep writing.
 
What's your motto?

Possession ARC giveaway #ElanasPossessionispowerful

I received my very first ARC in the mail last week and whipped through Elana Johnson's fantastic book. Help me spread "the buzz" about this great debut. I'm giving the ARC away, see below for more details.

My Round of Words in 80 days (ROW80) update is one I'm all keen to gush about. A couple weeks I posted about one of Donald Maass' great books on writing craft, the Fire in Fiction. This past week I've been busy doing all the exercises suggested in the Fire in Fiction for my WIP and I am THRILLED with the results.  I made some major breakthroughs with my characters, especially my antagonists (yes, I have two of them. One is a false cover for the real antogonist). (Love to be sneaky like that). 

Here's ROW80 updates from my partners Susan Kaye Quinn and Sheri Larsen.

Now back to Possession.  Elana Johnson's blog was one of the very first I started following, and it has been so fun hearing about her getting an agent, then a book deal, then the whole pre-pub process. She is so friendly and helpful and enthusiastic #Elanalove! I was so excited to finally read her book and I couldn't put it down.

Have you seen the movie Inception? You know, the dream within a dream within a dream mind-bender of a movie? Possession is like the YA dystopian version of Inception, with mind-control instead of dreams. It has you constantly guessing who is controlling who, and half the characters don't even know if they are the ones controlling or being controlled. It's wild and the tension is non-stop.

There's this wicked awesome thing called "techtricity" and all sorts of cool science-fiction gadgets. The walls move and talk and OMGosh the futuristic cell-phones are scary-cool.

But the heart of the story are the characters, Violet (Vi) who is all prickly attitude on the outside, and frightened heart on the inside, and she's falling for Jag though she's scared of what he represents. He's slick and smart and heroic and always keeps you guessing. 

Here's a little snippet that I loved, which gives you an idea of the tension of their relationship:

Jag caught up and fell into step beside me. He walked close enough to hold hands and far enough away that words could never repair the damage we'd done to each other.

And yet, there is some beautiful tenderness between Vi and Jag. I loved how"Vi talk" and "Jag speak" worked between the two of them. The tenderness and tension played a constant tug-of-war throughout the book.

Here's a snippet that gives a taste of the wonderful complexity that is Vi:

Gavin's face paled, her eyes hardened, and her smile vanished. "Vi?" she asked, her eyes darting between Jag and me. "The Vi?"

Having "the" put in front of your name automatically increases your status. Like The President or The Director or The End. Think about it. It wouldn't be the same if it were just End. I felt like it was The End for me because it clearly wasn't a good The.

The end packs some great twists and a great set-up for a sequel. Yeah, it satisfies you just enough while also leaving you hanging in anticipation for more.

ARCs are all about promotion and getting the word out. So please help me spread some buzz about this great book. To enter to win Possession, you must spread the word about the book (not necessarily my giveaway - I want this to be about Elana's great book, not my blog). 

If you tweet, please put #ElanasPossessionispowerful @ElanaJ somewhere in there so I can credit you and Elana can feel the love!You get an entry for leaving me a comment telling me you promoted the book someway, plus an extra entry for every tweet, facebook, or mention on your blog (if you facebook it or link it on your blog you'll have to tell me, otherwise I won't be able to find it to give you credit)

The giveaway is open until April 30th. 

Please go spread the word about this great debut! And tell me what debut novel you want me to help spread the word about, too. I'm all for supporting debuts (hope to have a debut book someday too!)

Move over iPad, I’ve found something even better

I’ve had my eye on the iPad since it came out and it’s been a serious temptation. The problem is, it’s sort of just a fancy toy, isn’t it? I know it’s great for video and music and e-reading and the Internet, but really, can you WRITE with the darn thing?

Turns out, you can - sort of. Good article: Writing with an iPad - six month review

[speaking of writing. Sneaking in a lightning fast ROW80 update here. Got some SERIOUS revising done this weekend. And 1500 new words.]

My laptop is 9 years old (it's actually my mom's old computer - mine died a tragic death last year). I’ve been saving my pennies for a new one. I can’t afford to buy both a laptop and an iPad.

But… that sleek tablet sure is tempting… especially since you can just slip it into your purse and take it with you EVERYWHERE. And then there's the cool factor. I could care less about cool cars, cool clothes, cool cell-phones, but somehow the tablet coolness caught me.

I’ve talked about this dilemma - laptop vs. tablet - with everyone at work (I work at a shelter for addicted computer geeks). (Well, not really, but it feels that way sometimes). Then on Friday, 5 minutes before 5 pm, our system administrator knocks on my office door and announces. “I’ve found the perfect solution for you.” He directs me to the Dell website, and here is what I found:

The Inspiron Duo - converts between a laptop and a tablet.

A laptop AND a tablet. You have the keyboard you need for serious writing and editing; but you have the tablet you can pop out that switches over to a touch screen for when you feel like going light.
I felt instant connection. This was the sign I’d been waiting for.

This was love at first sight.

While I’m waiting for my new laptop/tablet hybrid to arrive, I am going to stop drooling on my poor long-suffering laptop – it must last just a little longer – and take a moment to thank  a friend for passing on the One Lovely Blog award to me.

A little blurb about Akoss - she's a fellow crusader, one my favoriati commenters (sorry, favorite was just so plain, I had to jazz it up a little), and also one of my crit partners. Here's her blurb: "I do Graphic Design, I love to draw and can actually lose myself into it. However I also like to write and have been seriously crafting my skills since 2009. I write all things fantasy, but love urban fantasy, paranormal, and (newly) steampunk, for YA readers and MG."  She has a wonderful book review blog called the Fantasy Pen and a writing journey blog at Nye Louwon - My Spirit.

She lives in Arizona now, but this is so cool - she was born in and raised Togo! Have you ever met anyone from Togo before? Okay I know not everyone is a geography geek like me - Togo is a country on the west coast of Africa. Ah, the stories I can't wait to read from her! (Akoss this a request: tell us more about Togo, please.)

(I can't help myself. Tell us if Togo has any mythical creatures?)

Passing the award on to some other wonderful commenters who claim to enjoy my recent blathering about online persona and all the oniony layers of me I had to tell everyone about - thank you wonderful people for your support (and patience with my overly loooooooooooooooooooong blog posts).

Sophia Richardson at My Fleet-Footed Self
Saumya at Left and Right Brained
Ghenet Mrythil at All About Them Words
Robin McCormack at My Two Blessings
Sangu Mandanna at Echoes of a Wayward Mind

Tell me what you're saving your pennies for! iPad? Kindle? Laptop? Scrivener? (that's next on my list) ......Ferrari? (we can dream, can't we?!)

The experience. The sensation.

I've been mulling over this point from Alexandra Sokoloff's great post on first chapters:

IDENTIFY THE SENSATION AND EXPERIENCE YOU WANT TO EVOKE IN YOUR READER – AND THEN MAKE SURE YOU’RE EVOKING IT.

I cannot possibly stress this enough. We read novels to have an EXPERIENCE. Make yourself a list of your favorite books and identify what EXPERIENCE those books gives you. Sex, terror, absolute power, the crazy wonderfulness of falling in love? What is the particular rollercoaster that that book (or movie) is? Identify that in your favorite stories and BE SPECIFIC. Then do the same for your own story.

So I started doing what she recommended, thinking about my favorite books (and movies) and what experience they delivered and how they did it. Problem is, many books deliver multiple experiences. I'd love to hear if any one has some example of this experience/sensation thing that really jumped out at you lately from a book or movie.

Switch in topics now, I'll try not to derail you (Sorry, I watched the movie Unstoppable last night. Wow. Talk about specifc images and a suspenseful "experience"!) I'm always thankful when someone mentions me on their blog, like Shelley Batt and Alison Stevens did when passing the Versatile and Stylish blogger awards on to me. It's wonderful to have your words acknowledged by someone else in the wide, wide world - which is the beauty of Rachael Harrie's Crusader project. E.J. Wesley, a member of my Crusader group, expanded on this idea by going one step beyond passing on a award: he's taking the time each week to highlight one or two bloggers. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I was sincerely impressed by his idea. So here goes:

You may have noticed that my blog isn't very visual. I sometimes copy images from google and flickr, but it takes such a long time to find that perfect visual that matches my thoughts and intents... yeah, I'm just lazy that way. But I LOVE other blogs that are visually creative. This week I'm highlighting these three bloggers who are creative visually and with their bloggerly words too:

EJ Wesley (the Open Vein) - because of his great "highlight" idea (why did it take me so long to realize that best kind of promotion we can give ourselves is to promote others? Seriously!) And also he's so wonderfully off-the-wall (great selection of pics and videos) and at the same time dead-on with writerly observations about everything from coffee houses to music industry to the book industry. Still grinning over his take on territorialism in coffee houses.

Candice Kennington (Suffering from Writer's Blog) - she's unpretentious and funny (both with her stick figures and her snippets of life), which is a special combination.You gotta read this post about "buss" - can't help myself, gotta give you a sample:

Me: "My blogger friend Chantele (proceeds to explain blog)... So do you know what the word buss means?"
Husband: (thinks for several seconds...) "Is it some kind of stick?"

Me: (overly pleased that I've stumped him for once and still ticked about losing Trivial Pursuit hundreds of times) "Nope!! You're wrong. You're wrong. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah." (Okay, I didn't actually say that, but my eyes did. I then told him the definition and my sentence.)"Wasn't my sentence a clever tongue twister? Are you sad that yoooouuuu didn't know the word?"

Husband: "Buss my Butt!"

Me: (Feigning shock and indignation and then laughing)

Husband: "or better yet, buss off."

Me: "Hey!"

Husband: "I'm sorry, was that the buss of death?"

Me: (Laughing, again)

Husband: "Here let me make it up to you." (Begins to sing) "Buss-a-me, buss-a-me muuuuuuuchooooooo..."

Akossket (Nye Louwon - My Spirit) - because her blog's tagline "a search for the writer in me" is so beautifully and openly shared both in her words and her sketches. I really want to post a copy of that sketch here, because I've felt the exact same way a million times (writing her right now for permission to post sketch)

More highlights in future posts...

Blogging love on Valentine's Day

Kate Hart, Tahereh Mafi and and Kristen Miller hosted a secret valentine's set up, and my secret valentine, now revealed, is

Chelsey Blair at Sense and Disability

About Chelsey: she claims she's just an average 21 year old*, but check out her blog, "an aspiring YA author full of book reviews, musings on writing, life and being a young adult with a disability."

She also features books that have to do with young people with disabilties, and she does a great job with book reviews. She lists Maureen Johnson as one of her favorite YA authors, and I definitely agree! I fell in love with Girl At Sea, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, and the Key to the Golden Firebird. She's also a fan of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters.

Chelsea, I wanted you to wish a wonderful Valentine's day, I loved reading your recent posts, and I'll continue to be your not-so-secret bloggy admirer.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my Love Story Plots, or 13 ways to mess with your characters. I loved all the feedback! and now I have several more categories to add to my list.

• Old Kitty added "Twisted love" - a little Fatal Attraction, anyone?
• Which also reminded me of another related category, "Untrustworthy love" - the love interest that might have ulterior motives, but you're just not sure, and have to keep reading to find out!
• Len suggested "Love lost and found"
• Robyn suggested "Never Quite Gets a Chance to Be Love But It Really Is" (Remains of the Day)
• Sophia cracked me up with her love mess, "just because they love each other they don't have to be happy about it"
• Will suggests "Nerd's Bane" - the nerd is just smitten, but the object of the devotion thinks of them as a "Special Friend."
• And I just discovered a similiar post with Love Story Archetypes at the Enchanted Inkpot.

My writing goal giveaway update: sadly, my progress chart (see top of blog), is not climbing as fast as it should toward my March 1st goal. Where have all my wonderful encouragers gone? I need you!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. What's your favorite way to celebrate?

1) watch the movie Valentine's Day and smirk because Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner are SOOO history
2) have a candlelight dinner with your significant other
3) have a love-letter burning party with your best friends (anyone remember that Friends episode?)
4) splurge on chocolate (the one day a year we can do this entirely guilt free)
5) other? do tell!!! (PG rating, please)

*Not only did I get Chelsey's age wrong but I misspelled her name the second time, too! What a good sport she is! Also, late breaking news, my "secret blog admirer" was CA Marshall and she gave me a map valentine! She noticed I love maps! Totally made my day :)