Oh my stars I owe you guys a real blog, but until I can get my act together, I have to have to have to send you over to Kristen Lamb's blog.  She takes on the Star Wars prequels and schools us all in the art of story telling.  One of those posts that made me want to stand in my desk chair fist-pumping and shouting "YES! That!  Exactly that!"

And excerpt to get you running to read the rest:

Mistake #2 Heroes are not babies, and bad guys are not whiners.

OMG…I wanted to SLAP Anakin Skywalker. If the end goal was to make Anakin into DARTH VADER the greatest bad guy EVER…then no whining. Scene after scene of Obi-Wan just doesn’t take me seriously got old really quickly.

Yes, as writers it is a great goal to have flawed heroes, because perfect characters lack depth. But, I feel there are certain character attributes that will alienate fans. Whining is one of those.

See?  You totally want to read the rest, don't you?  What are you waiting for?

- Liz

Link-A-Palooza

Happy Memorial Day, Blogiverse!

I've again returned from an arduous journey tramping through the wilds of the Internet Jungle, collecting rare specimens to display here in my own little corner of the world.  I bring you...Link-a-Palooza!

First, in case you missed it, agent Mandy Hubbard took herself a little trip to New York and had a sit-down with dozens of editors.  What did she ask them?  The same question we'd all like to ask them:  What are you looking for?  And then she went and put it all in the Epic Post on YA/MG Trends.  Read, memorize, and go forth informed.  But remember--DON'T CHASE TRENDS.  This is just to help you know where to market your current projects.  Chasing trends will only end in heartbreak.

Next, agent Natalie Fischer (a.k.a. Princess Unicorn CEO) has some great revision suggestions with even more links to other revision posts on her blog.  Read it and weep.  Then do what she says even though you want to cry, because she's right.

The Intern continues to impress me with her thoughtful posts from the safety of anonymity.  Her Thoughts on Universals will make you think long and hard about what you're writing.  And you will be grateful.

If you don't already know Hannah Moskowitz, you obviously haven't been reading my blog very long.  But even if you're old pals with Hannah, you should read her post on creating the playlist for her latest book, Invincible Summer.  She has a particular fondness for covers in her book playlists and I found the greatest site for finding those amazing covers that just may inspire a new scene, book, or who knows what.  The Site of Awesomeness Covered in Awesome-Sauce is  Cover Me where you can find the most unusual covers you'll ever here.  Just be warned:  You may lose a lot of hours to browsing this site.


And finally, your moment of zen.  Watch it to the end.  Trust me.

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

Road Trip Wednesday with YA Highway

This morning, I'm diving into the weekly blog carnival hosted by YA Highway.  For this week's Road Trip Wednesday, the ladies of the Highway want to know:  If your WIP was a song, what would it be?


For my latest project, there is a full-on playlist, but this is the one song that really sums up the whole story:  Bon Jovi's (You Want to) Make a Memory.

LYRICS:


Hello again, it's you and me
Kinda always like it used to be
Sippin' wine, killin' time
Tryin' to solve life's mysteries

How's your life? It's been a while
God it's good to see you smile
I see you reachin' for your keys
Lookin' for a reason not to leave

If you don't know if you should stay
If you don't say what's on your mind
Baby just breathe
There's nowhere else tonight we should be

You wanna make a memory?

I dug up this old photograph
Look at all that hair we had
It's bittersweet to hear you laugh
Your phone is ringin' I don't wanna ask

If you go now, I'll understand
If you stay, hey, I got a plan

You wanna make a memory?
You wanna steal a piece of time?
You can sing the melody to me
And I could write a couple lines
You wanna make a memory?

If you don't know if you should stay
And you don't say what's on your mind
Baby just breathe
There's nowhere else tonight we should be
We should be

You wanna make a memory?
You wanna steal a piece of time?
You can sing the melody to me
And I can write a couple lines

You wanna make a memory?
You wanna make a memory?


Now, follow the link above to the YA Highway and enjoy the song stylings of all the other Road Trippers this week.


Do you have a WIP theme song?


- Liz

From the Depths of The Slog

I had a lovely conversation over the weekend with some fellow writers.  One of them mentioned a blog post she'd read about the Four Stages of Writing Development.  We didn't have computer access at the time, so I wasn't sure I'd ever find the meme in question.  But as is so often the case when I find myself wont of something, I give out my battle cry, "To the Google!"

And my trust search engine steed once again led me straight to my quarry.

Mary Carroll Moore's blog was the home to this particular tidbit, which she calls "Unconscious Competence."  I implore you to read the whole article right now.  I'll wait.  You know I'm good at waiting for you people.

Ah, you're done?  Excellent.

This is the part that spoke to me:

This isn't a fun stage, even though it turns out better writing than any of the other stages so far.  It's what my MFA teachers used to call the "slog."  We slog through the writing now, not really lifted up by it, not really energized.  But, at the end, we have something pretty darn good.

I am Atreyu, and my first draft is the Swamps of Sadness

These days, I find myself deep in Stage 3.  Slogging my way through a first draft and wishing like hell it was my third.  But still, the words come...sometimes only 100 at a time, but they come.  And if you add enough 100's together, you eventually find 70,000, right?  And then you're not so deep in the morass any more.

Falcor, a.k.a. Unconscious Competence

Stage Four, I'm coming for you.

- Liz

In Which I Collect the Wisdom of the Interwebz...

...just for you, my faithful readers.

There's been a lot of good stuff in the blogosphere lately.  Or, maybe I've just been procrastinating too much, but the fact remains that I have entirely too many windows minimized on my desktop for too long now, and the time has come to disseminate the goods to you fine people.

First, Dawn Rae Miller's love/hate letter to her Kindle made me laugh.

Next, Roni Loren puts the smackdown on the stigma against romance novels.  And I laughed again.

Then, Chazley Dotson compares revisions to building a Lego castle in a cave.  And it was true.

Finally, John Scalzi slays me again with his Electronic Publishing Bingo Card.  So I laughed some more.


And now, your moment of zen:

(Background:  This is a real Bollywood movie, but the subtitles are buffalax's interpretation of what English words the original Hindi sounds like--not the translation.  Hilarity ensues.)

Happy Monday!

- 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 Reveal My Weirdest Writing Trick

One of the tips I have heard in about a zillion places as a writer is to vary your sentence structure.  And that's a great piece of advice.  But if you're blazing through the first draft, you might not be thinking about whether or not you led with the subject in every sentence on a page.

So, here's my simple trick:

I try to make sure neighboring paragraphs all start with different letters of the alphabet.  I actually like all the paragraphs in any group of 5 to start with different letters.  (Yes, I know, it's anal.)

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not aiming for all 26 letters to appear on every page.  And sometimes I can't avoid using the same letter multiple times, especially in dialogue.  But, it's a good goal, and it's kept me on my toes as I write.

When I'm really feeling inventive, I try to do it within long paragraphs as well.  It's so much easier to look at one letter than the structure of each sentence.  And I do so love to do things the easy way.

Any more lazy girl tricks for me?

- Liz

Regarding Valentine's Day and BlogFests

A happy Friday to you all!  Today, for the first time, I'm participating in a BlogFest.  This one comes to us courtesy of the lovely ladies at Oasis for YA.  And it's just the right thing to celebrate Valentine's Day.  Every participant is putting a delicious 250-word morsel of swoony goodness from their YA Works-in-Progress.

Please go check out all the other participants' contributions.  It's like a box of chocolates, only calorie-free and even more of an aphrodisiac.

I have to confess to a slight cheat here:  this excerpt is from a completed work, but I haven't gotten to any swoon-worthy parts in any of my WIPs.  Still--enjoy!

He rested his hand on my leg, tracing a circle around my kneecap with one finger.  My skin was so cold from the walk home I could barely feel him touching me.  The beer may have contributed to the numbness, for that matter.  I concentrated on his hand until I could feel every cell that connected us.  Nearly hypnotized, I raised my head and looked at him.

He leaned in and kissed me.

Matt was the third person I’d kissed since my sophomore year of high school.  It felt so strange, and so exciting.  A shiver ran through my back, and a giggle escaped my throat.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

“I’m sorry.  I’ll stop.”

He kissed me again, and my mouth twitched toward a smile again.

“What?” he pulled back.

“I don’t know.  I’m sorry.”  I tried to sober my face, but the giggles bubbled up again.

“You’re crazy,” Matt said with a smile.  I clapped a hand over my mouth, snickering.  “You wanna stop?” he offered.

“No,” I said immediately.

“Then shut up,” he teased in a low voice, making the insult sound sexy.

I let myself smile through the next kiss, but I managed to keep the nervous laughter at bay.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.  Good.”

“Good.”  He flashed a smile of his own at me, but it was brief.  He had better things to do with his mouth.

We kissed for a long time, easing closer and closer.  When Matt put his arms around me, he bumped into the wings of my costume.  I pulled back and slid my arms out of the straps.  Swinging the wings off, I smacked Matt in the head with one.

He flinched. “This must be why angels and devils don’t mix.”

I laughed.  “It’s totally the wings,” I agreed.

On Getting MY AGENT

**Many apologies to any of you who already came to this half-finished meme which posted automatically without my knowledge! I would never be such a jerk, I swear it!

Writers love How I Got My Agent stories as much as 20-somethings love proposal stories.  And far be it from me to keep you all in suspense, so here is my story.

I started querying my latest project back on November 1, 2010 (I was hoping to slip into a lighter querying period while NaNoWriMo was going on).  I started small, with 5 or so queries, and tried ever so hard to be patient.  The responses were good!  Of course, I got the expected rejections, but I was also getting requests.  I was sending out partial and fulls with every appendage crossed and checking my email like I was getting paid by the 'Refresh.'

Finally, on a Friday in January, I got The E-mail.  It was from a lovely agent who wanted to schedule a phone call with me for the following Tuesday.  I read it, closed it, went back to what I was doing for a few minutes, came back, read it again and went on like that until I'd read the message about 4 times.  Then, I was finally able to respond (with minimum exclamation points, I might add) and we set up a call for the following week.

I spent the weekend tied in knots trying to tell myself it could be a revise & resubmit call, but knowing in my heart it wasn't.  We talked, and it went well.  Very well, in fact.  I was excited and dizzy when I got off the phone.

Like a good little writer who spends all her time reading blogs and Twitter, I knew my next move was to notify everyone who still had a manuscript.  There were nine notifications in all, and they all promised to get back to me by my one week deadline (I couldn't stomach waiting for two. I would have imploded).  A couple of them made me promise not to accept an offer before they could respond.  And one, it turned out, had already read my partial just days before and was waiting for her second reader to finish it before asking for the full.  She wanted the full ASAP.

On Friday of that week, I got my second call (from the agent who had read the partial and asked for the full).  She'd stayed up to an ungodly hour finishing my manuscript and her second reader did the same the next day.  Although my heart was slightly lower than my throat this time, I was still as nervous as they come as we talked.  It was another great call, and that meant I had a very tough decision to make.  I also had a few days to go until my deadline.

The day of my deadline was actually one of the best days I've had as a writer.  Because although most of the remaining agents decided to step aside, they sent me some of the most complimentary and encouraging rejections I've ever received.

Ultimately, I had to base my decision on gut instinct.  Who "got" my work better?  Who had a more compelling vision of my future career as a writer?  Who had more confidence she could sell my project?

It wasn't easy.  Both agents who offered representation were great.  The decision was a matter of degrees, and a certainly "feeling" I got during out phone call.  Sending a message to the other agent declining her offer was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

So, it pleases me something fierce to announce that I have signed with Laura Bradford of The Bradford Literary Agency.  Laura is amazing! (And you should totally follow her on Twitter if you don't already).  She's funny, excited about my work and ready to dig into the submission process as soon as we can get everything ready.  I am so happy to be working with her I could just burst!

Please wish me luck as I head into the next phase of my writing life!

- Liz

On the sticky subject of book reviewing

Last night, I noticed a few comments on Twitter that were part of a larger #querychat.  I don't know how it came up, or what the other commenters had to say, but literary agent Jill Corcoran made her case for not reviewing books on-line.

She discourages her clients from reviewing books on their blogs (I don't know about Goodreads) because she believes it serves no purpose except as a possible liability.  Namely, if you don't like a book and you review it badly, and your book goes on sub to the publisher of that book, and the editor happens across your blog, what are they going to think about taking you on as a new writer?

It's a fair point.

And now it's got me wondering.  Should I be posting reviews on Goodreads?  Anywhere?  A while back, I turned myself in knots over posting a negative review of a book anonymously.  I know what goes into writing a book.  Crawling through the slushpile of countless agents.  Refining, refining, refining your manuscript.  Clawing your way onto the desk of an editor.  Getting the attention of a reader from the shelves of a bookstore or library.  The odds are incredible.  So, who am I, really, to say whether a book was good or not?

Certainly I'm entitled to my opinion.  Even the most popular books/movies/songs/fashions/what have you don't resonate with everyone.  But does it matter if I share that opinion?  

I'm not going to digress into a tirade about the Internet making everyone feel entitled, blah blah blah.  I'm blogging for God's sake, that would be nothing but flinging stones from the front porch of my glass house.

But it does make me wonder...

In the end, what is the benefit of posting book reviews?

- Liz

In which I count on others to do my job for me...

My brain is soup.

I've come across many wonderful blog entries this week, so I'm just going to give you a round up.  A Link-A-Palooza, if you will.

Hope you find something you didn't see before.  Enjoy!


Melanie Benjamin is a frequent and wonderful contributor to The Huffington Post, and she has written two wonderful and thought-provoking entries recently that you should definitely make note of.

First, a discussion of book tours, and why new authors might want to avoid them.

Second, a humor look at the deals we as writers make with the universe if only...

Kate Messner wrote a poem on the occasion of the ALA Award announcements last week.  It was meant to comfort friends who did not get the awards they hoped for, but it spoke to me as an unpublished writer who keeps on trying.  THIS is why I write.

Then Lisa Schroeder reminded me that no matter where you are in the publishing spectrum, there is always someone doing better, and it's best to say "Oh Well."

The incomparable Victoria Strauss weighs in on the infamous First One Publishing contest, and helpfully rounds up all the other blog memes out that did their own weighing in when this cluster $@%& hit the Interwebz.  Please--don't enter.

And finally, I've been in contact with a charming gentleman by the name of Johnny Dale this week.  If you haven't heard of him, he is the author of The Darling Budds, which is a serialized novel posted on his very ownest website (which is gorgeous, by the way).  He's amassing it into an e-book that he's "straight-up giving away."  It's a boarding school, lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-bitchy book that actually breaks through those stereotypes to explore something real.  Check it out.

Anyone else have some goodies to share?

- Liz

Lessons from the Trenches: Practical Query Tips

Courtesy of Getty Images.

Sure, you can find endless blog posts from Agents, Publishers, Writers both Published and Unpublished on how to query.  What makes a good query letter?  How do I know which agents to query?  What not to do with your query letter.  It's all been covered.  Maybe someday I'll amass you all a nice omnibus list of great query resources.


But, as I have recently become a querying machine, I have a few more practical tips.  Things you might not think of when you're starting out writing your letters.  Things that will make your life easier.





THINGS I LEARNED THE HARD WAY


1.  Create a Draft Query:  No matter what e-mail program you use (I use G-mail) there should be a place to save a draft.  Put your query letter in that spot without anyone in the To: field.  Why?  Because e-mail programs sometimes do some quirky formatting stuff, and if you get it all right the first time, you can copy and paste it into a new message whenever you're ready.


2.  File Names:  Save your completed manuscript with a properly formatted cover page (in Word 97/2000 format, please--a.k.a. .doc NEVER EVER EVER .docx).  In the header, put your e-mail address on the left side.  On the right side of the header put TITLE / PAGE NUMBER.  I personally put my last name on the right side as well, but to each his own.  Just make sure you've got contact information available all the time.  Name the file  LastName_ManuscriptTitle_Full Manuscript


3.  Other Essential Files:  From the completed manuscript, create a new document for each of the following:

• The first 3 chapters
• The first chapter
• The first 50 pages
• The first 5 pages
• The first 10 pages

4.  The E-mail Ready Format:  When you've got your first chapter (or 10 pages, 3 chapters, whatever you've got the ambition for) saved.  Save it as a new document.  Select all, right click and use Paragraph to single space it.  Then, go through the WHOLE thing and put an extra return after every paragraph.  You absolutely must do this manually, even through Paragraph lets you do it the easy way.  Why?  Because then you can just copy and paste it into the body of an e-mail without making your recipient go blind at the massive block of text.

5.  Memorize This:  If you've saved a longer portion in the E-mail Ready format, memorize where your 1, 3, 5, and 10 page breaks are.

6.  Get the Greeting Right:  When you create a new message for your query, CHANGE THE NAME IN THE SALUTATION TO THE PERSON YOU ARE SENDING IT TO BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE.

7.  Join QueryTracker:  The free version will do you just fine unless you start juggling a lot of projects.  Create a list of agents and keep it updated.  Do your fellow QTers a favor and put in a new comment when you get results from a query.

8.  Check For Yourself:  When you use QueryTracker, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS go to the agency's actual website and double check the submission guidelines.  Follow those.  Even if they're not up-to-date, you can't be faulted for following an agent's own guidelines.

9.  Be A Google Genius:  While on QueryTracker, each agent page has a list of links to the left.  Click on the Google link.  But don't stop there.  Change your search to include "agent interview" and probably get rid of the agency name in the search.  Why?  Agents don't always stay at the same agency, or agency's merge, change names, etc.  Their personalities and tastes don't really change though.  There's gold in them thar interviews.

10.  Save It All for Later:  Create a folder in your e-mail program for Query-related messages.  Whenever you get one--even form rejections--save them to this folder.  Why?  Because if you are querying the same agent in the future, you can look back and see what kind of personalization you wrote the first time.  You can see if you got a form rejection or personalized rejection.  If you got something personalized, you might be able to mention it in the future.  You never know what might be useful.

Will these tips help you get an agent?  Not if your story's not ready.  Not if you're chasing a dead trend (and believe me, I know all about that one).  Not if you query the wrong agents for your book.  But, they will help you be professional, efficient and avoid being a #pubtip on Twitter.

Does anyone else have a great querying tip?  Share it in the comments.

- Liz

I Am Thankful For... (Writer's Edition)

1.  My family

2.  My friends

3.  The fact that my mind remains 

intact even while my body is being insane

4.  Good books

5.  The ability to read them

6.  The fact that my high school 

required me to learn touch-typing

7.  My laptop

8.  The wonderful people I have met 

through blogging and Twitter

9.  My crit group, The Inkslingers

10.  My amazing, incomparable beta readers

What are you thankful for?

- Liz

Interview and Contest Announcement

My very good friend, amazing critique partner, and soon-to-be bigshot published author J.A. Souders did an interview with one of her favorite authors, Rachel Vincent at The Oasis for YA blog.  Go, read a great interview, leave a secret in the comments and get a chance to win the first book in Rachel's Soul Screamers series.  What could be easier?

Click here:  Interview with Rachel Vincent

Happy Monday!

- 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

Open Letters

Dear Friday,


Thursday was not forthcoming with the sleep.  You're going to have to make do with caffeine and sugar.  Starting tonight, we're going on a sleep hygiene diet--promise.


Zzzzzz, 
Me




Dear Fall,


I think you know that you and I haven't exactly been friends in the past.  I hate the cold, and really it's all you have to offer.  Your pollen and mold, while I'm sure delightful in an Earth-renewing kind of way, make my eyes itch and my nose drip.  I appreciate the earlier sunsets a little, because my son is much more willing to go to bed when it's dark, but if we could somehow negotiate for a permanent 8:00pm set time, that would be great.  Also, if you want to put a cap on the cold weather in the 60-something range, I would be willing to reconsider my position on you as an all-around harbinger of suck to come.


With Hope,
Me




Dear WIP,


Let's pick up the pace.  We've done a lot more than this in a lot less time before.  You're just embarrassing me.  I'll bring the chocolate chip cookies and the fingers, you bring the work ethic.


Love,
Me




Dear Zit on my Forehead,


Can we be done now?


Thanks,
Me

Weekend Roundup

I spent too long trying to
figure out if the two pics were
the same girl.

I was pleasantly surprised by Rachel Hawkins's Hex Hall.  I'm not an enormous paranormal fan, so I was expecting to find it acceptable, but not much more.  Instead, the voice made me drool with envy.  And the plot, while somewhat predictable, threw me a few twists that made me appreciate Hawkins's skill.  All in all, a big thumbs up and I'm looking forward to Demonglass.

My pathetic blogging efforts continue to be sporadic.  I have a great plan for a blog, but I can't find the video I need on-line, so it's not coming quickly.  Grr.

Bender.  HA!

Yesterday's "Futurama" marathon made me so freakin' happy it was a little pathetic.  Personally, I think it's the funniest cartoon on television--and yes, that includes "The Simpsons," "Family Guy," and "South Park."


My work on Chronic (still hate that title) is starting to pick up a bit.  Working on Chapter 8 right now, of an anticipated 24, so a third of the way done, I guess!  How crazy is that?  It does, however, mean I am just about to enter the dreaded Middle of the Book (cue suspenseful chord progression--duh-duh, DUHN!) so prepare for me to hate everything about it and think I'm a big fat hack.


On the query front, things are quiet.  Unfortunately, no news is not usually good news in the agenting world.  Especially when some of the agents in question are "No response means 'No'" people.  Right now, I've only got one lonely partial out in the world, but you just never know which one is going to be The One, right?  Right?  Hello?  Is this thing on?

J.A. Souders - who will probably want to
kill me for putting her picture here

My friend J.A. Souders is having a big ol' contest over at her blog.  She's giving away all kinds of goodies, from books to manuscript critiques and all you have to do is follow her blog.  Easy, peasy!  So go do it.  


So, how was your weekend?


- Liz

Check Out My Fancy Cover!

I was lucky enough to work with the astonishingly talented Wilette Youkey on a for-fun cover for my project, The Sorbet Guy. 


Check it out!!

So cute, right?!

Wilette is fabulous to work with, quick and obviously wicked good at what she does.  She asked me questions about what my characters look like, any important symbols in the book, and for examples of book covers that I like.  


What we ended up with was this chalkboard-based motif that tickles me no end.


If you want to see more of Wilette's amazing work, or see about using her services for a cover of your own, please check out her website.  You won't regret it.


I'm gonna go gaze at my cover and smile goofily for a while. 


- Liz