On the Awesomeness of J.A. Souders

This weekend, I got the only news I can think of that might excite me more than getting a publishing contract of my very own:

My awesome crit partner, best-friend-I-never-met, future-superstar, natural redhead, and all-around cool person Jessica Souders sold her amazing book RENEGADE to Tor Teen!!!

Seriously, I could not be more excited for her if she was chosen to be the Princess of Florida (that's a thing, right?).  And I could not be more excited that soon all you people are going to get to read her story.  This thing is going to blow your mind.

Here's the announcement from Publisher's Marketplace:

Jessica Souders's RENEGADE, about a female assassin in an underwater Utopia who realizes her memories have been altered and her mind and body aren't under her own control, to Melissa Frain at Tor, in a nice deal, in a three-book deal, by Natalie Fischer at Bradford Literary Agency (World English). Translation: 
taryn.fagerness@gmail.com 

Are you in?  You're so in.

So now, your job is to go fan up.  Trust me, you're going to want in on this when this story hits the shelves.  You're going to want in on it early so you can make like a hispter and say you totally heard about it before anyone else.

Go to her website, follow her blog, follow her on Twitter, and Like the RENEGADE fanpage at Facebook.  Got it?  Great!

How was your weekend?

- Liz

On The Mystery of Voice

As we all know, "voice" is one of the most powerful elements in fiction.  A strong, compelling voice will snare a reader instantly and will keep them through the duration of your novel.  A voice can make up for a myriad of trouble spots in a story.  (Not that you should try to write a story with problems, but you know what I'm saying.)


So, what is it?  And how do you get it right?


There are a kajillion blog posts out there about voice, though I still think Megan Rebekah did it best.  But I just found a visual example.


And that's about the time my brain exploded.


If you haven't seen the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, this probably won't mean anything to you.  (Also--why haven't you seen it?  Are you kidding me?)


For those of you who have, just imagine if the whole story had been told in this voice:

The creator, Joseph Brett, says this of his video:  "My aim was to make it look more like an indie coming of age film; perhaps the kind of film Sofia Coppola or Godard might make."


He didn't create anything new.  He didn't manufacture moments from the movie--this story is there in John Hughe's classic.  He just used a new "voice" to show us another side of Ferris Bueller.


What do you guys think?


- Liz

In which I discuss new beginnings of many types

Happy 2011!

Where have I been for the last 10 days?  Well, purging my house and cleaning like a house cleaning mad thing on mad house cleaning tablets.  Seriously, it's awesome in here.

Which is good, because I'm about to start working from home.  How do you like them apples?  I like 'em just fine, especially with a little caramel to dip them in.  It's a good news, bad news thing--as these things so often are--because the reason I'm about to start working from home is I went ahead and lost my not-at-home job.  (Such a weird expression, like my job slipped out of my pocket on my way home, or I'll turn it up next time I pull of the sofa cushions).  But I digress...

The query hunt has been fruitful these last few weeks.  I'm running at about a 30% request rate for all the replies I've gotten thus far, and that my friends, is nothing to sneeze at.  (And speaking of weird expressions, do people sneeze at things they disdain in real life?)  I'm really hopeful that this is going to be THE ONE that lands me an agent.  We'll see, won't we?

The red ones make it look
like the tub is bleeding, too,
which is fun!

The other night I was in the shower when an idea struck me like a bolt from the blue, as these things so often do in the shower.  So now I have a new tip for you from one writer to another:  If you do not have children, or your children are grown, you should STILL have bath markers in your shower, because you can make notes all over the wall while your brain is full of suds and steam and all other good things shower-related.  Then you can take pictures of them with your trust iPhone and never worry you'll forget what came to you in the shower again.  So there you go.



Finally, I would like to pimp four blogs to you.

1.  My friend Jane is new to the writing world, finding her way and feeling a bit of a fool for not knowing what to do with this on-line world of writerliness.  Feel free to stop by and give her some newbie lovin'.

2.  This is the story of someone in my family's death and subsequent illegal burial.  I will be no more specific.  And don't worry, it happened a long time ago, so I'm not looking for sympathy.  Quite frankly, it's HIGH-larious.

3.  Speaking of HIGH-larious.  Hyperbole and a Half's latest blog is a story I could so picture happening in my family, specifically to my son, in fact, that I had to share it.

4.  My critique group, the erstwhile Inkslingers, have started a new project--tiny little writing prompts that we're all going to answer in a very tiny way every few weeks.  It's a casual affair, but I'd love you all to play along!  Everyone is welcome.  See the rules, written by yours truly, to join us.

How's by you, blog followers and casual readers?  Anyone else got some new beginnings to share for this cold January night?

- Liz

What I Did On My Blogger Vacation

I've been gone from here. A lot. As usual, no small part of it has to do with me being an infrequent blogger. But for once, I have a decent reason, too.

In October, I accidentally did my own personal NaNoWriMo.

See, I was plodding along through a decent project that I like, and I'm still fond of, but it just wasn't coming easily. Meanwhile, I was struck with inspiration in one of those bolt-from-the-blue moments.

I have an older project that has made the querying rounds with lots of requests, lots of positive feedback, but no offers. A lot of "great writing, not enough of a hook," "love your characters, love your dialogue, but this plot isn't original enough to be a debut." Which was really hard at the time, because I love those characters, too, and I felt like they weren't getting a fair shake (from their story, not from the agents).

Now, over a year later, I finally had my Aha! moment: I was telling the story from the wrong character's perspective. The idea stayed with me, and all but stalled progress on my other work-in-progress.

"I'll just write a few pages to get the basic premise down," I thought. "Get that first scene out of my head so I can concentrate on the other one."

Twenty-two days and 74,000 words later, it was done.

And it feels right. My wonderful crit partners have already given me the thumbs up and the first 50 pages have been through the ringer in my crit group. If I had a Magic 8 Ball, it would be reading 'All Signs Point to Yes.'

It doesn't feel like a first draft, or even a second, third or fourth. It feels like the final edits on the story I told a long time ago. I guess it just took a year, a leave of absence from work, and that final spark to give me the chance to absorb all the input I got on the query trail last time.

So, I'm not doing NaNo this year. I need a break! My wonderful friend Ryan made me my very own certificate though, for doing my personal NaNo a month early. It's at the top of this post. Pretty awesome right?

Fingers crossed, people! And for those of you doing NaNo--It can be done. Trust me!

- Liz

Lessons From the Weekend

On Saturday, I went to a wedding.  It was a lovely affair, peopled by friends from college.  Lots of fun had by all.


In the course of the evening, I talked to a friend who, when I asked what he was doing now, replied, "Writing, teaching and traveling."  I was struck by his priorities, but first asked about his teaching.  Then, I bucked up and asked about his writing.  He is a screenwriter in L.A. who has an agent, and is currently making the rounds at studios, trying to sell one of his projects.


I decided to take his example and be bold.  I told him about my own writing, my search for an agent, and the poor market for my kind of stories right now.  We talked shop for a while, discussing crit partners and sharing your work and the fact that "writing is rewriting."


He told me in L.A. lots of people say they are writers just because they have an idea.  They've never put a word on paper.  I've heard a lot about this on the Interwebz--that the distinguishing feature of writers is that they write.  But this was the first time I ran into someone who had experience with it firsthand.


I consider myself lucky to be surrounded by such an active community of writers, on Twitter, on my blog and in my critique group.  And I wanted to give all of you props for getting out that and doing it everyday.  Writers write, my friends, and you guys do that.


Write on.


- Liz

Like Hats Upon Your Crazy Heads

I recently developed a raging writer crush on Jandy Nelson (whose novel The Sky Is Everywhere should be at the top of your to-read list). On her website, she features several quotes she loves. This one grabbed me by both shoulders and hauled me up to the stratosphere.

So today, all I want to do is share it with you. Please enjoy.

“To sum it all up, if you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must write dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfume and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish for you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories—science fiction or otherwise. Which means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”

–Ray Bradbury

Are you feeling deliciously mad now?

- Liz

Link-a-Palooza: Contests and Questions and Book Releases, Oh My!

Back for another installment of LINK-A-PALOOZA, in which I give you the lowdown on some great places to go instead of working.

First I bring you Writing Out The Angst, joint blog of Amanda Bonilla and Suzy Haze (who are totally follow-worthy, by the way). To celebrate their new venture, Amanda and Suzy are hosting a CONTEST.

All you have to do is follow their blog(s) and leave a comment. When they reach 100 followers, they're going to offer up Query Critiques to ten lucky followers. Easy right? Go for it.

The same two lovely ladies have a new feature at their blog. Ask an Agent. You can leave one question for an agent (the first is Julia Kenny at Markson Toma Literary Agency) in the comments of the introductory post, then Amanda and Suzy will compile the questions into an interview and post the answers straight from Ms. Kenny's mouth. This could be invaluable, people, so start thinking about your #1 question.

Next up, we have an announcement. MJ Heiser, who kindly let me interview her right at this very blog, is available for pre-order! That's right, CORONA, previously only available in e-b00k format is now rarin' to go in Hardcover. Get yours now!

I just finished listening to Stephen King's Under the Dome and I have to say it did nothing to relieve my literary crush on The King. Whether you love him or hate him, you gotta give the man he's prolific. And I adore him (for many reasons) because he continues to innovate. He's using his clout in the publishing industry to push the envelope. Graphic novels, small publishing houses, audio-only, serial format--the man has done it all. Personally, I loved the book and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Particularly in the audio format. This is an undertaking, people. Forty hours, I think it was, but it was worth it. I really enjoyed the reader, and he did a masterful job of creating unique voices for the whole cast of characters.

I downloaded it from Audible.com, and if you like audiobooks at all, I can't recommend this place highly enough. We have a subscription, which earns us 12 credits a year. A credit gets you a book (sometimes longer ones cost 2 credits), and the subscription gets you a discount on all books, even if you don't use your credits. Best of all, you can download it right to your iPod or several other formats.

And I think that's about all you need to hear from me today.

Have an awesome link to share? Hit me in the comments.

- Liz

--Megan Rebekah's THE WRITE STUFF--: The Elusive Voice

One of the lovely and talented writers I follow is Megan Rebekah. Today, she has knocked my socks off with the most straight-forward explanation of voice I've ever seen.

Read it, memorize it, print it out and hang it over your desk. Trust me, this is the real deal.

--Megan Rebekah's THE WRITE STUFF--: The Elusive Voice

- Liz

Why I Write What I Write

I've said in this forum and others that I wish I could write something "more meaningful" than light romance. This is a position I've slowly eased away from over the last two years as I realize that every writer has their niche and forcing anything else will land you with nothing more than forced prose. Yuck.

So, then I had to wonder--WHY do I write light romance? Considering that I've never dated, it's kind of an odd genre choice for me. Maybe I'm trying to fill some psychological desires, who knows? Then, the other night, my husband and I had an interchange in the kitchen that made me realize where my inspirations come from.

The scene: I'm in the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher, when my husband wanders in for a glass of water.

He presses his glass against the dispenser in the refrigerator door and gets the usual cacophony of the ice machine. Nothing falls in the glass.

"Huh, that's weird," he says.

Comprehension dawns, and I stifle a laugh. "I may have put another Popsicle in the ice chute."

(The important fact here is that I put a Popsicle in the ice chute the day before, which resulted in his receiving the plastic tube of partially eaten red juice along with a handful of ice cubes in his glass--an incident which confused him a great deal until I explained.)

His expression goes from confusion to annoyance in the span of a second. "Why did you--?"

I cut him off, "I won't do it anymore!"

He makes a huffing sound that would make a thirteen year old girl proud.

"Would it help if I flashed you?" I offer.

"It wouldn't hurt," he says, but he's not looking at me, because he thinks I'm lying.

So I flash him.

He catches the movement out of the corner of his eye and snaps his head around, grinning.

Then he opens the freezer door. The Popsicle has formed a dam (pretty damn impressive consider it's about a half inch thick) and all the undispensed ice is backed up behind it. Ice explodes out from the tray, rattling across the floor, and cracking him on the knuckle of one bare toe.

This time, I get the full stank eye.

"I said I won't do it again!" I protest.

Another Junior High huff. "I just hope it isn't broken."

"I highly doubt one Popsicle could break the whole ice machine."

But when he's got all the ice scooped out of the chute and the door closed again, the dispenser only churns, but doesn't drop a single cube in his glass. He glares at me.

So, I have to throw a Hail Mary. "Wanna see my boobs again?"

* * *

Romantic? Not really, but I can certainly imagine myself writing a similar scene in one of my books. So, I guess I'm writing what I know. With a heavy coating of imagining to fill out the rest.

I'm going to get the stank eye for writing this in my blog, I'm pretty sure. Luckily, boobs never seem to lose their charm.

Does your art imitate your life?

- Liz

Myra McEntire: Don't Listen to ME

Myra McEntire: Don't Listen to ME

Myra collected some advice from two of my favorite YA authors in one easy spot. We love Myra.

- Liz

My First Blog Award!

Yesterday, Jill over at Jill Kemerer, honored me with The Sunshine Award. Thanks Jill! I greedily put it on my blog already, but wanted to give the fabulous Steve Novak a full day to be the top item on my blog before I posted this. Sorry for the delay, Jill, and thanks again.

Rules to Accept the Award:

◦Put the logo on your blog in your post.
◦Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
◦Link the nominees within your post.
◦Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blogs.
◦Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Nominees:

1. Jessie at JA Souders

2. Kristan at Writing Dreams into Reality

3. Mary at Mary Brebner, YA writer

4. MaryBeth at Keystrokes & Word Counts

5. Cassandra at C.A. Marshall

6. Kelly at Just Write

7. Megan at Megan Rebekah Blogs...and Writes

Yes, I'm aware that 7 is not 12. I know a handful of other bloggers who are more than deserving of all kinds of awards, but most of them would give me a raised eyebrow if I presented them with a flower, so they shall remain admired, but unawarded by me.

- Liz

What's In a Name?

"Once upon a time, there was a little boy named ________________."

I've got names on the brain.

See, I just finished my last project (working title LAST CALL) this week (can I get a Halle-freakin'-lujah?), which means I'm onto my next project (more about that as it progresses), which means I am back in the business of naming characters.

The naming of characters is a difficult matter. A name should, like the title of a book, give us a clue about what kind of person we're meeting. Now, that's not always possible, and some names just don't have that kind of personality-revealing clout, but there are a few things to consider when naming a new character.

1. How old is the character? Wouldn't you, as a reader, get yanked kicking and screaming out of your suspension of disbelief if you encountered a character in the 55-75 age range named Bodie or Heather? It's not impossible, maybe, but it sure would make me think the author didn't know a thing about naming trends. Surprisingly, the Social Security Administration can be very helpful in this regard. Their website lets you search popular names by year and state.

2. What, if it matters, is the ethnicity of the character? If I'm writing a character who is a recent immigrant to the U.S., I sure as heck better find a name from that person's home country. Similarly, I can give characters a quick hint about my character through his or her last name. Allison Duong, for example, is probably of Vietnamese descent.

3. Where is your story set? I set all my stories in the Midwest, where a lot people are of German, Polish or Irish decent. So, I try to make my last names seem realitic for the area.

4. Do you want your character to stand out? Maybe something unusual will do the trick. I have a Clementine in my list of characters, for God's sake. I do, however, strongly discourage making up new names unless you happen to be writing fantasy. I also firmly believe that main characters should have an easily pronounceable name. Otherwise, the reader skims and thinks, Oh, that R-word again, that X person again...

5. To theme or not to theme? In A GAME OF RISK, my main character's name is Gwenyth, and she has a younger sister named Efa--both traditional Welsh names. In LAST CALL, my MC is Clementine, and her siblings (adults in this case) all share virtue names--Honor, Merit and Prudence. I think it can work, but only if you're using it within a reasonably associated group of people. Siblings are ideal, high school girls who form a clique because their names all start with A works, but an entire novel populated by people with elaborate an unusual names just makes me gag.

6. How do you feel about nicknames? In my worlds, characters get nicknames. Usually more than one. So, when I pick a name, I have to consider all the possibilities for what the other characters might start to call them. Because, frankly, my writing is like a mild form of schizophrenia, those people in my head seem to do whatever they want.

Here are some other great links for your name search:

Social Security Administration

Babycenter allows you to search by name meaning, syllables, first or last letter, or origin

Parentsconnect has an extensive list as well, with an advanced search like Babycenter. If you click More next to any name, you can get a pronunciation as well!

And, of course, you can't be Google for a specific name search, like 14th century Dutch names, or precious gem names. You never know what you're going to find!

Now I find myself with a whole, unformed world slowly taking shape in my head and I'm wondering who it is I'm going to meet there. So far, the only thing I've settled on is Sydney as my MC's first name.

What does the name Sydney bring to mind for you? Does someone named Sydney look or act a certain way? Please share your thoughts!

- Liz

Process? We Don't Need No Stinking Process

I promised you I would touch on my process in this blog. It will be an interesting exercise for all of us, since it’s not something I really think about. As with most things, I suspect that I will unearth a wealth of truth behind my presuppositions. Let’s begin, shall we?

It would be ideal if the writing process went something like this:

1. 1.Inspiration Strikes
   

2. 2.Sit down to write
   

3. 3.Finish the story as initially planned.
   

4. 4.Run Spell Check
   

5. 5.Query
   

6. 6.Sign contract with agent
   

7. 7.Sign contract with publisher
   

8. 8.Sign books at a well-attended personal appearance
   

9. 9.Wave to Paparazzi at premier of movie based on book
   

10. 10. Rinse and repeat
    

Not surprisingly, it doesn’t work like that.

In lieu of any real method to my madness, I’ll begin with inspiration: Where does it come from and how do I get some?

The answer I think you will get from most writers is, “I don’t know, and I wish I did.” In all honesty, it is a lot like that lightning strike cliche. For example, I was watching my son ride the toddler roller coaster at Menards one day when out of the blue, the entire plot for my current project Last Call came to me. I happened to be listening to my iPod at the time, and maybe it was something I heard--I’ll never be sure. What I am sure of is the fact that I carry a notebook in my purse and I promptly jotted down enough words that I’d remember what was in my head.

That’s the rare case. Often, I get a kernel of an idea from a song lyric, or from another story (real life or fiction). One of my bad habits is to try to predict the end of movies I watch. I’m frequently right, but when I’m not, it inevitably leads to my little brain churning over what would have happened if I had been right. That can be enough.

After that point, writing is a game of what if for me. I start writing and just keep asking myself, “What if...?” I usually know the general direction I’m headed, but there are a lot of questions to be answered in the middle.

So, I guess I don’t really have any suggestions on where to find your own inspiration. The only advice I do have is to carry a notebook with you. You never know when a character name, an eloquent turn of phrase, an image or an entire plot will hit you from out of the sky. And although my brain seems to have a limitless capacity for TV theme songs and song lyrics, the storage capacity for inspiration is finite and small. If I don’t get it down on paper, I’m likely to lose it.

If you’re curious about the inspiration for something I’ve written, feel free to drop me a message. Otherwise, until next time, I bid you adieu.