The blog will be dark until early September, but here are a couple places I’ll be…
-The Mark is featured on the new Bloomsbury/Walker site for their titles with a paranormal element.
-I’m participating in Wastepaper Prose’s Author Insights feature each Tuesday or Thursday (I love this series – 30 authors answering one question each week)
-Guest posting at Chronicles of a Newbie as part of the Complete Your Draft Challenge
Enjoy these final weeks of summer…au revoir!
It’s that time again…
Enter at The Tenners by commenting with a favorite book cover and why by Tuesday, August 17th at midnight. Giveaway is open internationally to anyone 13 or older. Good luck!
I’ve had my head buried in Book 3′s draft in the pipe-dream hope that it’ll be done before we leave for vacation on Friday. In the interim, a few tenner releases have happened…
The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston: The narrative structure is not straight-forward and the book is rife with ambiguity. It is lacking in prom dresses and predictability, but it is rich in theoretical physics, murdered chickens, and an unusual and resilient main character…Loa Lindgren.
The Life and Opinions of Amy Finawitz by Laura Toffler-Corrie: Told in wry emails and brilliant little one-act plays, this laughout-loud debut MG novel offers quirky characters, a whimsical tour around New York City, and an appealing story about what it means to be a good friend.
And coming soon…
Livvie Owen Lived Here by Sarah Dooley (Aug 17): Olivia “Livvie” Owen feels things differently than her parents and two sisters. Livvie is autistic. Her family has had to move repeatedly because of her outbursts. When they again face eviction, Livvie is convinced she has a way to get back to a house where they were all happy, once. The problem is, Livvie burned down that house.
Wildfire Run by Dee Garretson (Aug 31): Just once Luke Brockett would like to do something slightly dangerous, but when your father is the President of the United States, that is not an option. A “summer camp” experience with three friends at Camp David ends abruptly when a forest fire traps Luke and his friends are inside. With the Secret Service agents incapacitated, the friends are forced to outwit security systems designed to be unbeatable before the fire gets to them.
The Absolute Value of -1 by Steve Brezenoff (Sep 1): Noah, Lily, and Simon have been a trio forever. But as they enter high school, their relationships shift and their world starts to fall apart. Privately, each is dealing with a family crisis—divorce, abuse, and a parent’s illness. Noah’s got it bad for Lily, but he knows too well Lily sees only Simon. Simon is indifferent, suddenly inscrutable to his friends. All stand alone in their heartache and grief.
All descriptions from Goodreads.
Congrats Blythe, Laura, Sarah, Dee and Steve!
I’m up to 53,300 words on the newest manuscript which translates to almost two-hundred pages or about 95% of the finished versions of The Mark and Vision. This book is definitely not 95% done. I’m not really sure how close it is, I’m just going to keep writing until the idea bin for it is empty.
That’s how first drafts go. They’re my least favorite part of the writing process. The hardest part, the blank page daring me to come up with something interesting. But what I really hate about them is the certainty that what I’m writing is a complete mess.
As the big-picture creative part of the process, the draft is where story lines develop, characters are fleshed out, sometimes taking on larger or different roles than originally imagined, themes emerge and pieces of the story connect or fall apart.
And because much of this stuff develops organically, the story is inevitably uneven. Things are repeated, emotions flat, motivations missing, whole parts of the story are explored too fully or not enough, characters act differently in the beginning than they do later and not in a good way. Not because they’ve developed on the page, but because they’ve developed in the writer’s head, their voice different on page one-hundred fifty-three than it was on page fifteen.
Knowing all of this drives me crazy in the same way that knowing my car needs to be vaccuumed or my desk organized does. But I ignore that stuff just like I ignore the disaster of words behind me as I’m drafting because if I didn’t, I’d spend my whole life neatening things up and never get anything done.
The first draft is about spilling out all the thoughts and pieces of story to be organized and prettied up later. I try to write sequentially, keeping one “clean” file and a separate “junk drawer” one, with stray bits and out-of-order scenes that get worked in as I go.
I just keep writing until I’ve exhausted ideas and worked my way to the final scene, already written and waiting it’s turn to be cut and pasted in, and I’ll have…a finished draft, a lot of editing to do and maybe a few minutes to clean my desk.
Well, that was fun, but I guess it’s good Amy Winehouse is already married (she is, isn’t she?)
The feet all got lots of dates which their owners are quite pleased about. Of course, their owners all wrote in to say they’d date their own feet. Which is just kind of…strange.
And the winner of the two books is…
Juliana!
Congrats, Juliana!!! There’s a message in your inbox about how to claim your prize.
Thanks again to everyone for playing along (including you, feet owners:)) – I loved reading the random answers and if you’ve got any random questions, be sure to send ‘em along (tho’ my husband will probably not thank you for it).
Not a lot going on here. The new book’s coming along (41,800 words), no new news on the other books, been taking the kids to the zoo, the beach, getting a new boiler today (hot water! after a week of cold showers!).
In other words, there’s not a lot to blog about and I’m too lazy to come up with real content. So how about a random giveaway?
Really random.
I make my husband answer questions like these all the time:
If you had to marry one, who would you pick – Britney Spears, Lady Gaga or Amy Winehouse?
If you had to date one of these people based on feet alone, which would it be?
Friends are sometimes forced to play, too – sorry, Mistie & Martin.
It must run in my family because my sister keeps a list of her favorite baby names – boy and girl – in her wallet. She’s been known to take them out on first dates and make the guy choose and, yes, sometimes they even go out with her again.
So, now it’s your turn! Answer a random question – both if you like - for a chance to win any two of the random assortment of books shown below (click on the pic for a larger view):
The questions again…
Who would you marry (Britney, Gaga, Amy)?
Which feet would you date (pink, red, brown, orange polish)?
If marrying/dating girls/celebrities/feet isn’t your thing, use your imagination, ‘k?
Leave your answer in the comments by Tuesday, July 27. I’ll pick one random winner to be announced July 28. The giveaway is open internationally to anyone 13 or older.
Good luck and thanks in advance for playing!
Head over to the Tenners for this month’s giveaway of awesome, book-related stuff:
To enter, comment on the Tenners’ post with where you’re going on vacation and what book you’re bringing. The giveaway ends Monday, July 19th at midnight – good luck!
Happy belated release day to Anastasia Hopcus for her YA debut Shadow Hills, published yesterday by Egmont.
I read this on the Tenners’ ARC tour a few months ago – it’s got a great cast of characters and interesting paranormal mythology/science.
To celebrate the release, Anastasia is giving away a bunch of stuff, including signed books, swag and t-shirts – details here.
Congrats, Anastasia!
Book Briefs: an interview series where authors talk about…what else? Books!
Lindsay Eland’s debut middle grade novel, Scones and Sensibility, was published by Egmont USA in December 2009. The paperback version will be out this December.
What book are you reading right now? I just read the last delicious pages of Beauty by Robin McKinley.
Your favorite children’s book: It’s a tie between Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson and Matilda by Roald Dahl.
Your favorite non-fiction book: Hmmm…Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
Your favorite classic (read: book they made you read in school) book: Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens.
The last book that made you laugh: The BFG by Roald Dahl.
The last book that made you cry: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.
The last book you recommended to a friend: The Goose Girl by Shaonnon Hale ’cause I LOVE Shannon Hale.
A novel you’ve re-read (and re-read): Matilda by Roald Dahl and A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck and The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo
One sentence that gives the gist of your book best: Overly romantic and overly dramatic 12-year-old Polly Madassa sets to matchmaking in her small beach town with disastrous and hilarious results.
Avoiding spoilers, a 1-2 sentence passage from your book that you really like:
“This is most vexing to me,” I said aloud. (I had learned the word vexing from dear Jane Austen and had hoped to find a circumstance in which I could use it. This was definitely one such moment.) “Yes, I am very vexed indeed,” I said again.
Learn more about Lindsay and Scones and Sensibility at her website: www.lindsayeland.com.
Thanks, Lindsay!
After weeks of my dawdling around on facebook and ebay and Allie Brosh’s blog (which is totally hilarious and worth any amount of time), Book 3 is finally picking up speed.
I’m up to 36,000 words (The Mark and Vision both ended up around 58,000), but more significant was today’s moment. I was writing dialogue between two characters, it was flowing pretty well, then out came a passage that tied in perfectly with something that’s already written into the last scene. Totally unintentionally, my subconscious showed me how to connect the dots. Kismet like this means I’ve finally gotten into the groove.
Hallelujah.