Happy Holidays!

The Christmas Countdown is on in my house, and thanks to illness and head injuries, we are a smidge behind. So I'm going to have to take a blogging break.

Have a great Christmas and New Year - or if you don't celebrate Christmas, then have a great couple of weeks! I'm off to whip my house into shape and enjoy my in-laws and my kids for a while.

See you all in January!

Friday Favorites: Books We Read This Year

After today, there are only two Fridays left in the year! Only TWO!


So, let's do a roundup of best books. Some of the best books I read this year, in the order in which I read them, were:

ZORGAMAZOO, MG, by Robert Paul Weston, which I loved for the sheer audacity of writing a novel in verse and pulling it off, and also for the zany wackiness of the story itself;

THE ODDS GET EVEN, MG, by Natale Ghent, for its timeless feel, so rare in novels today;

FEED, YA, by M. T. Anderson, which was right on the money for where it looks like we're headed even though it was published almost a whole decade ago, and which is set in a world so complete and real it feels like I'm already there;

THE CITY OF EMBER, MG, by Jeanne DuPrau, which is gripping and mysterious and which has the most perfect ending.





As always, there are even more great books I've read this year that aren't in this list, but these books here are works of art. Be sure to read them if you haven't already.

Now it's your turn. What are some of the best books you've read this year?

Questions, Questions

I spent yesterday evening in the ER - it's a long story involving my older son, a game of tag, and a snowy slippery slide - and I was reminded once again of how important it is to take advantage of those unusual opportunities to ask as many questions as possible. Not just about the patient, but about hospitals and emergency rooms in general. You never know when you're going to need that info for a book or short story.

And in the meantime: why do schools let the children play on equipment in the winter? WHY?


*My son is doing well, by the way. He had a concussion, but his vision has returned to normal, and he's got his appetite back. Phew!

Wisdom on Wednesdays: Breathe

The holidays are always so full - decorating the house, wrapping the presents, writing the cards, mailing the packages, baking, visiting... On top of everything else, because it's not like life just stops for December, is it?

It's easy to feel overwhelmed; in fact, you just might not be human if you don't. (And if you don't, I want to know your secret.)

It's cool to take a breather once in a while. Shut down the critique groups for a couple of weeks, let your manuscripts marinate for a few days while you get some housework done, just jot down some ideas for later, after the presents have been opened and the relatives have gone. The world won't end if you turn off the computer for a few days. You won't lose out on a contract by not checking your email every 5 minutes.

In the midst of the chaos, remember to breathe.

What are your tips for getting some down time during the holidays?

Go Local!

I've always been a proponent of supporting local artists, craftspeople, and businesses, so it's my pleasure to direct you to a super giveaway on Toronto author Claudia Osmond's blog, where another Toronto author - the fabulous Helene Boudreau - is giving away a signed copy of her new book, REAL MERMAIDS DON'T WEAR TOE RINGS!

This book, focused on the trials and tribulations of an aquaphobic mermaid (who didn't know she was a mermaid), looks like a really fun read, and Helene sounds like a really fun (and smart!) lady. Go here to check out her guest post, and be sure to play the HEART/HATE game in the comments to enter to win!

Inspiration in the Little Things

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday, and my littler son was literally jumping for joy. His unbridled enthusiasm inspired a fresh idea for a picture book manuscript.

This morning, I looked out my window to see the skeleton of our walnut tree covered in a fine dusting of snow. More inspiration.

How about you? What's inspiring you today?

Friday Favorites: Holiday Traditions

We took our sons to see The Nutcracker ballet last night, and it was just as magical as when I remember seeing it as a child. (Although some of the story elements that mystified or left me with questions then remain as question marks today.)

Another Christmas tradition in my house is watching the original animated version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas: Boris Karloff was the perfect choice as narrator for the cartoon, and Thurl Ravenscroft's grisly rendition of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" makes the show complete. Plus, it's just a darn good story.

And of course, no Christmas season is complete for us without listening to the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas, composed by Vince Guaraldi. His jazzy arrangements of classics like "O Tannenbaum" and "Greensleeves" add a different level to the music while maintaining the original feel, and his originals like "Linus and Lucy" are pure holiday funk.

How about you? What are your holiday traditions?

On Goal-Setting

I've been thinking about my writing goals for December, and thinking about how I'm going to fit them in since my kids' week home from school with croup has kind of derailed things for a while.

And then I realized: I have writing goals for December. Concrete ones. Achievable ones, even now that I'm down a week, if I really put my head down and get to it.

I never really did that before.


I mean, I used to have ideas about what I wanted to achieve, but they were usually a little unrealistic and not really that defined anyway, and I never really felt that bad if I didn't meet them.


I think doing NaNo, which had a clear goal with a defined deadline, and taking a class, which had an assignment due every week, helped me develop my writing habit into a goal-setting habit. I like this change; I'm getting more done.


How about you? Do you have clear writing goals? Does it help or hinder you?

Wisdom on Wednesdays: Look Away

When your beautiful child is sitting in front of you, pouring his heart out about how much everything hurts, and you're nodding and holding him and wishing you could make everything better, and he looks you square in the face before taking a very deep breath...

LOOK AWAY.


Because if you don't, he will sneeze tiny invisible droplets of sick all over your face. And you will regret it. Because everything will hurt.


How are you feeling?

Resistance

Paul Greci posted on his blog yesterday about pushing through resistance in his writing, and it got me thinking: I've been facing some internal resistance of my own lately. But it's nothing to do with my writing - at least, not directly.

It's to do with Facebook. And Twitter. Which, frankly, I loathe. (Nothing against all you guys who love them; they're just not for me.) I'm not good at sifting through noise to find the sound bites that I'm interested in, and as much as I love knowing what my very best friends' kids are up to, I just don't have time to read about everybody else's kids/dentist appointments/shopping finds. I'd rather be writing. Or reading. Or hanging out with my own kids, without the distraction of constant tweets and postings popping up every few seconds.

Plus, you know: I like the phone for keeping in touch. And email. Letters. What happened to those?

I know what you're thinking: we only need to choose what we like to do, and do it well, right? That's what everybody says, right? Well. That is what everybody says, and to a certain extent, it's true. There are many, many writers and actors and artists who manage to be successful and attract a broad audience without Facebook or Twitter or any of those social media vehicles, simply because they are that good.


But I'm not talking about attracting an audience. I'm talking about connecting: with writers, with editors, with agents. I'm talking about maintaining contact with people I meet at conferences and seminars, because I liked them and I liked what they had to say, and because building relationships is what being human is all about. And those wonderful people whom I want to maintain contact with?

They use Facebook and Twitter for that.

So you see my dilemma. Now I'm going to ask for your advice.

If you were me, what would you do?


By the way, I know I'm usually much better than I have been this week about responding to all the lovely people who leave me comments here on the blog. Both my kids have croup, and we're not really getting much sleep around here. And we would probably buy stock in tissues, if buying stock were my thing. But as soon as I can get enough time at the computer, I will respond to each and every one of you, I promise.

Silly Season

A writer-friend from Down Under mentioned last night that they call the holiday season "Silly Season," and it got me thinking: between Greeting Cards, Pot-Lucks, Shopping, Present-Wrapping, and the rest, there's not a lot of time left for writing.

I know that I don't have a lot of time for writing anything new; it's mostly revising and polishing the drafts I've completed, wrapping up the drafts I've started but not finished, and submitting (poems and Picture Books - NOT the NaNo project, people! For the love of print, DON'T SUB YOUR NANO PROJECT! At least, not until you've revised it first.). And if I still have time after I've done all that AND the present-wrapping AND the pre-houseguest home reno AND the card-writing and mailing AND the cleaning AND the baking, then maybe I'll work on some of my PiBo ideas. But it's not lookin' good, folks. It's not lookin' good.

How about you guys? How are you going to spend December?

Friday Favorites: TANGLED!

Okay.

I think my picture establishes that I have long hair. But in case it doesn't: I have seriously long hair. It goes all the way down my back. And it's thick, and curly, so I generally give the impression of:

a) Cousin It (on a frizzy day)

b) a walking shrub

c) Medusa (on a windy day)

d) HAIR.

I don't go through a day without someone somewhere saying something about it, which is usually a very very very nice thing, but is very occasionally an uncomfortable or even scary thing. My hair, for good or ill, is part (a small part, but a definite part) of what defines me. (Before you get all freaked out that I need therapy, don't worry - I don't live through my hair. It's just a bigger deal in my life than in most other people's. But it's still only hair.)

So I just about screamed with excitement when I saw this trailer for Disney's new movie, Tangled, based on the story of Rapunzel.


There's a moment in the movie when some big guy sees Rapunzel walk past and he grabs hold of a lock of her hair and as it runs through his hands, he mutters, "Her hair's long."

That totally happens.  To me. All the time. Strangers, whom I have never met, grab my hair and tell me that it is long. I like the sentiment, but the stranger-touching-hair thing? A little bit icky.

And when Flynn replies, "Yeah, she's growing it out,"? Best. Comeback. Ever.


So, have you seen it yet? What did you think? How did it compare to other Disney movies that you've seen? Am I the only one who can relate to the whole hair thing?

I Heart Picture Books

I promised you guys a post on PiBoIdMo today, so I'm here to deliver.

I signed up for PiBoIdMo thinking, just like with NaNo, that I'd coast through it if I kept my notepad on me at all times and scribbled down every idea I had. NOT SO. (See how stupidly arrogant I can sometimes be? When will I LEARN?)

Picture books are hard to do, guys. The picture book author is truly a lover of books and of words, because there is no way that anyone would just do picture books for kicks or because they had a gap in between projects. They're hard to write, they're hard to revise, and they're super hard to get right. Because you have to work to a 32-page format, they're actually very technical. And coming up with new ideas was HARD. Just when I thought I had a great idea, I'd realize it had been done. And maybe you're really good at taking repeat ideas and putting a fresh spin on them - in fact, I bet you are - but I'm not. It was humbling.

So, like with NaNo, I squeaked by. I came up with exactly 30 ideas, and my 30th idea came at 10pm on November 30th. But if I do say so, some of these ideas totally kick butt.

What PiBo did for me was force me beyond the usual, old-hat, done a million ways from Sunday ideas and into the really unusual, out-of-my-comfort-zone ideas. It made me look at the world with different eyes, and it made me really listen, to myself and to my surroundings. And since PiBo, I've actually continued coming up with ideas, which kind of rocks. So it forced me into a new habit, which I hope will continue.

The other thing that PiBo and NaNo both did was show me that I can meet a deadline. I used to freak out about that element of being a "published author" - that I'd suddenly have deadlines, and wouldn't be able to meet them. But after completing both these challenges, I know I can.

Now, over to you guys: Did you do PiBoIdMo? How about NaNoWriMo? What did the experience teach you? I think as long as we all learned something, everyone came out a winner.

I'm Baaaack!

Hey, everybody!  Thank you so much for sticking with me and coming by to comment even while my blog was on hiatus. It also came to my attention that I might have an award or two floating out there that I have to collect, which I will get to in the coming days. (And THANK YOU for that! You guys are the best.) I just wanted to say that you are awesome, and having you guys come by to say hello really brightened my days while I was slogging through those 50,000 words.

Which I did! I wrote over 50,000 words of my novel! 51,636 words, to be exact, including the ending.

I DID IT!


And I'm feeling pretty proud of myself, actually, since over 47,000 of those words happened after November 15th, and a little more than 40,000 of them happened after the 25th. Yeah. Thanks to my husband, who took over the housework and kept me supplied with caffeinated food and beverages, I wrote 40,000 words in five days. And I'm tired. But that's okay, because I conquered the NaNo mountain.


And since this is a Wednesday post, we've got some wisdom coming through the brainwaves. (But only maybe a little - I'm tired, guys.)

When I first took on the NaNo challenge, I thought it would be totally doable. Actually, I thought I'd coast through it. 1,667 words a day? I thought, That's not even two hours' worth of word-vomit. No problem. I can be arrogant like that sometimes; it's not my best quality. But when November 16th came and I was still stuck at 4002 words, I thought I was in serious trouble. And I had no outline to speak of. I had several failed attempts at an outline, but no outline.

And on November 22nd, when my word count had topped out at 6,483? I thought I was toast. Which was really disheartening, because I really didn't want to still be cranking out my rough draft in the days leading up to Christmas. I wanted to be working on my picture books and my chapter book, and letting my novel marinate. It was an important goal for me.

But here's the difference: by November 22nd, I had an outline. I had a map. I knew where I was going, and I even had a plan for getting there. I also had John Green. On an endlessly repeating loop sometimes, but I digress.

And, of course, I stopped restricting myself. If I was stuck in a scene, I threw quality to the wind and let my internal editor make her notes in the margins and on the outline (and there were a lot of notes, believe me) and just wrote my way out of it. If I was really stuck, I skipped the rest of that scene and came back to it later, when I had written more and had a better sense of where everything was headed. I even allowed myself to veer off-outline once, and later found that what I had written was SO much better than it would have been if I had stuck to the plan. And most importantly for me, I knew that there were other writers, whom I have a LOT of respect for, who knew I had signed up for this. Meeting other people's expectations is a big motivator for me.

Does a lot of my NaNovel suck? Yup. But that's okay, because I can revise it. Revision is the fun part for me; it's the gravy. Cranking out the words is just tedious, but revising the story and crafting those words into something beautiful (or in this case, gory) is what it's about. Like I said a while ago, I'm a critique junkie.

So, that's my tiny piece of maybe-wisdom today. Have an outline, have someone or something to encourage you, and make yourself accountable to someone else. And know that it's okay to suck. Okay, so that's four tiny pieces. I'm tired; the ability to count is not important in moments like this.

Of course, after that 5-day caffeine binge, I have a migraine, so I'm going to sign off. More tomorrow on PiBoIdMo, which I also did this month.

And congratulations to all the writers who participated in NaNoWriMo! Even if you didn't make it to 50,000 words, you made a decision to start, and you started, which is something, in my book.

James Frey Wants to do WHAT?

Okay! So, I know I'm supposed to be on hiatus, BUT I saw this post on Robert Paul Weston's blog and just had to jump in here.

The gist is that James Frey wants Creative Writing students to send him one-line pitches and full manuscripts for high-concept paranormal books, which he will buy exclusive rights to for the low-low-price of...

$250!

Yeah, I know. It gets better!

Then he'll rewrite it, and market it under a pseudonym, and keep 60% while giving you 40%.

Ummmm...

Right. Does this say "turd" to anyone else, or is it just me?

Here's my take. If James Frey wants my ideas so he can write his own stories, fine. He can have them for $250 each, because the ideas are the easy part. But for me to do all the work, and then let him rewrite it and sell it under a pseudonym, and not get any credit whatsoever for my work? Thanks, but - no, actually, not even thanks. Just "no".

Look. This type of assembly-line-style writing is not for me. But even if it is what you want to do, don't do it this way. Go to a publishing house that does this type of thing and at least pays you decent money and puts your name on the cover of your work. Go get hired by James Patterson, who will at least list you as co-author on the cover.

But please, for the love of print, don't sell your work for peanuts to some guy with an inflated ego and a big name so he can rewrite it and pretend it's his. Surely the publishing industry isn't that far gone.

(More on this over at KT Literary's blog, in New York Magazine, and in The Globe and Mail. Enjoy. Or, throw things at your computer. Whatever takes your fancy.)

Hiatus!

I am swamped.

Not only am I way behind on my NaNo goals, but I have critiques to do and an epic outline to complete. Having company over will have this sort of result, methinks.

So, I am going to have to take a two-week-ish blogging hiatus. I'll miss you guys, but I have to take my own advice here and buckle down and prioritize. And I hope you'll understand and come back in December, when I'll be back to my daily blogging schedule.

In the meantime, have a great November, and I'll see you on December 1st!

Friday Favorites: Main Characters

There are so many factors that go into loving a book: the plot, the word choices, the world it is set in. But a huge, huge part of what makes me keep reading is the main character. If your main character annoys me, your book is sunk. GONE WITH THE WIND is a fine example of this - I wanted to slap Scarlett O'Hara, but since I couldn't do this, I just put the book down.

So, let's talk about some of our favorite main characters in books! Some of mine are:

Olivia the pig. I like her spunk, I like her can-do attitude, and I like her energy. And she is JUST like my kid, which helps, too. *grin*

Edward Cullen from TWILIGHT. I can hear you gasping from my chair. I like him, okay? Yes, he was a little controlling, but he had the benefit of a hundred years of life experience that Bella didn't have. I kind of get where he was coming from, and I think he was actually a very very complicated character. I like that what he loved most about Bella - her humanity - was something that he had to lose if he wanted to be with her forever. Talk about high-conflict!

Ramona Quimby, because she got away with doing and saying all the things that I wished I could do and say as a child, but never had the nerve to do or say.

Jamie Fraser from the OUTLANDER series, because he is complicated and at the same time easily understandable. He is loyal and fierce and headstrong but at the same time reasonable. Just read the books.

And I have exceeded my usual three-item limit, so even though there are more, I'll hand the floor over to you.

Who are your favorite Main Characters in books?

Wisdom on Wednesdays: Branching Out

I watched a fabulous film last night that gave me the idea for this post.

I know what you're thinking. We're deep into NaNo and PiBo. I have a bunch of projects on the go, on top of those commitments. And I spent two hours watching a movie?

DUMB, I hear you say! But I say, smart. Because this movie was so clever, and the dialogue was so perfect, that it has informed my writing.

So, that's my wisdom. Branch out into something other than writing for a while: watch a (really good and well-written) movie, try a new recipe, surf YouTube and Jango to find songs by artists you've never heard of. Do something new; make your brain think in a new direction. I bet it will make you a better writer.

And if you write for kids, in any age group, get your hands on "Mary and Max" and watch it. Preferably not with your kids in the room, but definitely with your writing in mind.

What new thing have you tried lately?

Sh*t My Husband Says

So, I was explaining the evils of dialogue tags and adverbs to my husband Saturday evening, and especially the evils of adverbial dialogue tags, and he says:

"They sound kind of like skin tags."

Conversations like that are why I married the man.

How was your weekend?

Friday Favorites: Writing Snacks

NaNoPiBoNaNoPiBoNaNoPiBoNaNoPiBoNaNo......

Yeah. The drive to create has taken over. And who can create without brain food?

So I thought I'd conduct an informal survey amongst my writerly bloggy-friends, and find out what everyone keeps their mouths happy with while their fingers are busy typing away. I'm trying to be healthy while my butt is glued to my desk chair, so I'm switching it up by munching tortilla chips with salsa (YUM!) or guacamole (double YUM!), or snacking on dried fruit and nuts (also YUM!), or chewing gum (makes my jaw hurt after a couple of pages).

(Yes, I just marked time by the number of pages typed.  Oy.)

How about you?  What is your writing snack of choice?

WINNERS!

I hate to tease.

Really, I do.

I should just get to posting the winners of my giveaways now, and not worry about all the buildup, shouldn't I?

It would be the nice thing to do.

*wicked grin*

Okay, okay, I'll do it!

Here we go...

(ha, ha...)

Okay, for real this time!

Ready?

The winner of a signed copy of RAISED BY WOLVES by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is...

RaShelle Workman!

(YAY!  Applauds, sets off virtual fireworks.)

The winner of a signed copy of WICKED LOVELY by Melissa Marr is...

Lynda!

(YAY!  Applauds, sets off virtual fireworks.)

And - wow, was there a lot of competition for this one, guys, and I wish I could give a copy to everyone who entered - the winner of a signed copy of DUST CITY by Robert Paul Weston is...

Paul Greci!

(YAY!  Applauds, sets off virtual fireworks.)

So check your emails, guys!  And if you don't have an email address linked to your profile, then email me - my addy is up there in the right-hand corner, where it says "Get In Touch".

And thanks for entering!

Wisdom on Wednesdays: Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are...

Okay, lets be honest: standing around reading spines in the picture book section with nary a child in sight, reading pink paperbacks with titles like "My Boyfriend, My Cupcake, and Me," and talking in public about the most exciting plot points in your nephew's 4th grade reading assignment are, when you think about it, a little embarrassing.  Or even a lot embarrassing.  But we all do it.  Or at least, we should be.

In public.

I know.

When someone asks you what you do, it's tempting to tell them about your "day job" if you have one, or to tell them that you're a SAHM if you don't.  When you get those weird looks on the subway from grown-ups who catch you reading that book with the bright pink cover, it's tempting to slide it into a brown paper bag.

Don't.

Just tell them you write for kids.  They might want to talk to you about what their kids are reading; they might want to talk to you about what they wish they could find for their kids to read; they might have a cousin or brother or sister who writes, who will be a valuable connection for you to have; they might want to write a book themselves.

So, come out, all you closeted writers of Kidlit.  The world is a much friendlier place than you think it is.

ALSO: Winners of DUST CITY, WICKED LOVELY, and RAISED BY WOLVES to be announced tomorrow.  I have company over; I'm NaNo-ing; I'm taking a writing class; I'm kinda busy.

Contest Reminders

Read my review of DUST CITY and enter to win a signed copy here.


Tell me your wacky Halloween costume ideas or email me a picture of yourself decked out in your Halloween gear to win a signed copy of RAISED BY WOLVES or a signed copy of WICKED LOVELY in my HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA here.


Also,

That is all.


Happy Halloween!

YA Spotlight and Contest: DUST CITY!

Today is a very special day on the blog, guys. Today I'm doing something I once vowed NEVER to do - I am reviewing a book. But it's not just any book - it's DUST CITY, by Robert Paul Weston. (Rob is the mind-blowingly crazy-brilliant author of MG novel ZORGAMAZOO, which won the Silver Birch Award... And which rhymes. Yup. I said he was brilliant, didn't I?)

And what's more, I have one brand-spanking-new, signed copy of DUST CITY to give away!

I am very excited to be able to spotlight this book today. Not only is it a thought-provoking read, but it does something I love, which is take a very modern story and put it in an extremely dark fairy tale setting. It pays homage to the original tone of the stories of the Brothers Grimm, to great effect. Here's the publisher blurb:

"Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?


His son, that's who.


Ever since his father's arrest for the murder of Little Red Riding Hood, young Henry Whelp has kept a low profile in a Home for Wayward Wolves, until a murder at the Home leads Henry to believe his father may have been framed.


Now, with the help of his kleptomaniac roommate, Jack, and a daring she-wolf named Fiona, Henry will have to venture deep into the heart of Dust City: a rundown, gritty metropolis where fairydust is craved by everyone - and controlled by a dangerous mob of Water Nixies and their crime boss leader, Skinner.


Can Henry solve the mystery of his family's sinister past? Or, like his father before him, is he destined for life as a big bad wolf?"

 How awesome is that?


There are a lot of things I like about this book. It deals with a number of issues that are very relevant to teens today: drug abuse, gang violence, identity crises, and more. These ain't your momma's fairytales, folks. And while Henry grapples with these issues, he does so in a world in which nothing is black-and-white. In Dust City, there is a whooole lot of grey, right up to the end. Just like in life.

Additionally, the characters in Dust City are very well-drawn. Henry does good things, and bad things; smart things, and really, really dumb things. He makes mistakes, just like every other teenaged boy out there, and every other character in this book is like that. And I loved them for it. When I found myself thinking, No, Henry, don't do it! It's a set-up! I knew I was onto a winner. Not many authors can make me care about their characters enough to think at them. And meeting each new character and figuring out which traditional fairytale they were from, and then finding out that I was right as I got to know the character more, was like getting little presents throughout the narrative. Awesome.

And also - and this is kind of shallow, but... You have to feel the cover of this book. It's textured. It feels... I`m not going to tell you how it feels, but I`ll tell you that I love it; it is so, so appropriate for this book. You have to go to your nearest bookstore and stroke it.* (The bookstore people will understand; they've probably beat you to it, actually. You know you want to.)

Don't you want to read this book right now? Well. You could go out immediately and buy it. You could immediately order it for your Kindle. Or you could win a signed copy right here, right now. In fact, I think you should go ahead and buy a copy anyway, because you're going to want to have a copy to read and re-read while your nice autographed copy rests pristinely on the shelf.** It's that good.

How can you win a signed copy of this book, you ask?

It's easy. Just:

1) Be a follower of this blog.

AND

2) Leave a comment on this post, telling me the name of your favorite fairytale.

The contest will run until MIDNIGHT on the night of MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1ST. I will put the names of every person who enters into a hat, and randomly draw the winner. The winner will be announced on my Wednesday Wisdom post on November 3rd. (In case you're wondering, my favorite fairytale is Hansel and Gretel.)

Good luck! And... GO!


*Yes, I do that. Bookstore people love me.
**Yes, I do that, too.

BOO-FEST entry!

FIRST: Go here to enter to win a signed copy of DUST CITY, by Robert Paul Weston.


And now for my entry:

About a year and a half ago, I was in the middle of several days of rehearsals for a play re-enacting a murder trial here in the town where I live. I was cast as the wife of the accused. One morning, as I was sitting at the kitchen table with my sons, the younger one, who was about to turn two, pointed to the kitchen window and said, "I see a lady!"

I looked, and though I saw nothing, he insisted that there was a lady there. I asked him if she was in the kitchen, and he said that she was outside, looking in the window.

Then he pointed again, and said, "Look!" And his vision tracked from the window, into the room, then down the hall and upstairs.

I asked, "Where is the lady now?"

He replied, "She gone upstairs."

He saw her once more during the play's run, and hasn't seen her since.

Wow.

Make sure you go to Quinn's blog over at Seeing, Dreaming, Writing to check out the other entries today!

Random Pre-NaNo, Pre-PiBo Stuff

There's all kinds of great stuff going on right now here and in the rest of the blogoverse, so I'm postponing the usual Wisdom post until next week.

FIRST UP: There are TWO WAYS to enter the HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA!!! You can either comment telling me your wacky costume ideas, OR email me a picture of yourself in your costume. So don't be shy! Enter here.

SECOND UP: OMG, guys, have I got a great author spotlight and book giveaway contest for you coming up tomorrow. I am so excited! It's going to be awesome, so come by and enter, okay? Okay. You can enter both tomorrow's contest and the HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA! It will be easy-peasy, I promise you.


THIRD UP: I guess you noticed from the title of this post that I'm probably going to do NaNoWriMo. In fact, I have so much of my YA paranormal outlined that I have decided that I AM doing NaNo! WOO-HOO! And, of course, I am also doing PiBoIdMo. I'm pretty sure I can come up with 30 PB ideas in 30 days; my 3-year-old is a rich source of material. I mean, his big thing is running around the house with his underwear on his head. So, yes! to NaNo!  Yes! to PiBo!  YES! to my head exploding! (I'm just kidding about that last part...I think.) I am not yet set up on these things, so I will post over the weekend with links to my pages so you can buddy me.


FOURTH UP: Obviously, this means that I will have less time for blogging.  Like, a lot less.  Like, none.  I will maintain a thrice-weekly posting schedule, comprising of Mondays (random updates, writerly thoughts, linkages, etc.), Wednesdays (Wisdom), and Fridays (Favorites/random writerly stuff).  But I won't really be commenting as much on other blogs, at least not for the first half of November while I have family visiting from overseas (OMG, I must be MAD). And of course, we'll be right back up to five-posts-a-week from December 1st!


SEE YOU TOMORROW!!!

To NaNo, or Not To NaNo...

FIRST: Have you entered the HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA yet?  If not, do it here.

And now: To NaNo, or not to NaNo?

It's the question on everyone's mind this time of year, isn't it? It sure is the question on mine, and I still haven't made a decision. Here's why.

When I take the "vomit on paper" approach, what I write is crap. I mean, steaming poo, scrape it off your shoe and throw it away crap. It's awful. But as bad as it is, there are usually kernels in there that I can use, that serve as the foundation of the scene that I wanted to write but didn't because I was rushing to get the words out.

On the other hand, when I take the "write, delete, write, think, go back over the last scene, think, delete, write, write, cut-and-paste from somewhere else in the scene, write, think, write, delete, write" approach - otherwise known as the painstaking, my-fingers-are-bleeding, "edit-as-you-go" approach, what I come up with isn't too bad. It's still not great - there are always things that need to be done to make it better - but it's not something I'd be embarrassed to show to my crit group. But it also takes a lot longer. I'd never make the NaNo target of 50,000 words doing it this way, especially not in November, which is when Thanksgiving and visitors from overseas and housework threaten to take over my life.

So, which is better? Just getting something down quickly, even if it's crap, knowing that I can rearrange and edit and delete and rewrite it into something critiquable? Or saying, screw daily word goals, I'm going to write for four hours a day and no matter how long it takes me to finish the book at least it's going to be of an okay quality when I get there?

What do you think? Is NaNo a go, or a no-no? What writing style works best for you?

Friday Favorites: Musicals!

I love going to musicals - they always make me feel like dancing and singing. Which might be why the Hubster doesn't take me to them anymore. He's great, but there's only so much bleeding-ear-syndrome a guy can take.

ANYWAY, let's talk favorite musicals, shall we? Some of my favorites are, in no particular order:

Fiddler on the Roof, written by Joseph Stein, music by the genius Jerry Brock, lyrics by the brilliant Sheldon Harnick. It's about ordinary people, who manage to find beauty and love even in the midst of oppression and heartbreak. When I was a teenager, I loved it because the daughters showed their papa that when it comes to marriage, love conquers all. As an adult, I love it because it shows how we can keep going even when life insists on smacking us down. It's wonderful.

Guys and Dolls, written by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, music and lyrics by the incredible Frank Loesser. This musical is pure fun. The permeation of the musical numbers "A Bushel and a Peck", "Luck Be a Lady", and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" through popular culture in the '50s is evidence of just how powerful they were, and in many ways, still are. And who can turn down a Tony Award Winning musical? Not me.

The Phantom of the Opera, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the book Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux, lyrics by Charles Hart, Richard Stilgoe, and Alan Jay Lerner. This is a classic, guys. It's dark and twisty and dark and mournful and passionate and just perfect. And did I mention dark? And did you know that it's possibly one of the most, if not THE most, successful pieces of entertainment ever? It is with shame that I admit that despite my Phantom love, I have yet to see the movie. What can I say - I identified with the Phantom, and I wanted to be Christine. This bright shiny blog is just a cover-up for my secret pain.


As always, there are more musicals out there that I love, but I think I should stop at three. Now it's your turn. What musicals do you love? Are there any great ones out there I might not have heard of?

Wisdom on Wednesdays...On Thursday?

I'm not very alliterative this morning, but I'm sure you wonderful people will forgive me. I had planned to skip this post, but I had an idea yesterday that I wanted to share with you all.

I was in an atypical environment yesterday - and by atypical, I mean different from my usual haunts of home, library, and grocery store.  And I don't know if it was the fact that I was in a new environment, or the fact that I've been working on a novel so I'm in "notice stuff" mode, or just the fact that I had remembered to pack my notepad in my bag -or maybe it was a combination of all of those things - but whatever it was, I was noticing EVERYTHING.  The color of people's eyes, the smell of the air, the sounds, textures of fabrics, placement of furniture, all of it.  But it wasn't until I had been there for over an hour that I thought, "Wait a minute - I write.  I should be writing this stuff down!"

DUH.

Because this happens to you too, right?  You notice a whole bunch of great stuff, and then at the end of the day you sit down at the computer and your mind is blank because after dealing with the kids/traffic/spouse/pets/whatever all those great details you noticed before have gone right out of your head.

So, write it down.  Right there, in public.  In the moment.  Because you never know which details are going to be valuable to you later.

HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

Halloween is coming - one of my favorite holidays!  I love Halloween because I get to dress up in something reeeeealllllly crazy.  Or, just something unusual, like that alternative career path I never took as a brain surgeon.  Hey, stop laughing, I'm serious!

Plus, you know:

not that I do that anymore - I don't want to end up like this gal...

Migraine...  uuuhhhhhnnnnnn.  Death by migraine...


Um...  What was the point of this post?  Oh, yeah!  It's time for the

HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

Bet you want to know what you're supposed to do, right?  Right?

Well, this is a contest, folks, so you have to do more than just the usual thing.  You have to make an effort.  And since I love dress-up (as long as it's a little wacky), your task, should you choose to enter this contest, is to email me a photo of yourself in your Halloween costume.

ONE PHOTO PER PERSON.

Now, I know some of you will hate that idea.  Maybe you're 21st century Cavepersons like myself.  So alternatively (or additionally), you can tell me your wacky Halloween costume ideas in the comments to this post.

FEEL FREE TO POST AS MANY IDEAS AS YOU LIKE.

THE RULES:

- You must be a follower of this blog.

- You must leave a comment, either to tell me to check my inbox for a photo or to share your wacky costume ideas.  Also in your comment: your email address, so I can contact you if you win.

- Contest closes at 12 noon on Monday, November 1st (to give you late-night partiers time to sleep in and email your photo from the night before).

- This is a contest, so I will pick my favorites, possibly assisted by my clever Hubster and darling children, or possibly not.  But the point is that I will pick, so have fun with it and be creative.

- Winners will be announced on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 at 6:00am.

Of course, no contest is complete without PRIZES!!!  And since it's Halloween, I've obviously picked appropriate prizes!

First up, a copy of WICKED LOVEY, signed by Melissa Marr!  Can I just say how cool she is?  When I met her, I asked her what had compelled her to organize the Smart Chicks tour - a group of awesome women who write awesome books on a SELF-FUNDED book tour - and you know what she said?  She said she thought it would be a great thing to show girls that women can do this and be successful.  She wanted to empower girls.  She rocks.  And so does her book.  And the greedy me wants to keep it, but I know there are an awful lot of you out there who haven't had the chance to meet her and talk with her, so it makes me feel good to know that someone out there is going to LOVE this.

Second up, a copy of RAISED BY WOLVES, signed by Jennifer Lynn Barnes!  Okay, first of all, she looks about 16, which is SO not fair!  And secondly, she's very very smart.  She's studying developmental psychology WHILE WRITING TONS OF BOOKS, and her first YA novel was published when she was just 19.  She's a phenomenon.  And so is her book.  And the greedy me wants to keep this one, too - I mean, she was raised by WEREWOLVES!  And it's GOOD!  Trust me, that psychology degree is going straight into her books.  Her characters are that good.  You're going to love it.

So, great prizes!  Fun contest!  Tell your friends!  It won't get you any extra points, but it will make for more fun when I post some of the best piccies.

And...

GO!

Quick Update

I have new batteries in my camera!

WOO-HOO!

But I need Hubby's help to get the pictures onto my blog because I am a 21st Century Caveperson, so:

HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA announcement will be posted TONIGHT!


I'll be skipping my weekly Wisdom on Wednesday post in order to give you folks a chance to check out the contest.

Later!

Books That Stand Out

A number of people have asked me which books stood out when I did my "research" on First Chapters, so I thought I'd oblige with a few titles.  Note that I stuck to paranormals, because that's what I'm writing right now:

THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST, by Rick Yancey.  This book stood out because the whole "beginning" - which is a prologue - is a red herring.  We meet a guy who seems to be the main character, and he's telling us about how he's been researching this town and he is given a set of journals that were written by a man who claimed to be well over a hundred years old, and then we turn to Chapter One and BAM - the book is actually a transcription of the journals.  And it's GOOD - it really drew me in.  The characters are well-drawn, and the world is just so engrossing that I didn't want to put it down.  Yancey does a great job with drawing out suspense in the first chapter of this book - it's on my TBR list for sure.

PARANORMALCY, by Kiersten White.  There's a reason for all the buzz surrounding this book, guys, and it's not because of Kiersten's blog.  It's because this is a stand-out book.  You know how paranormals always have that dark, creepy feeling from the first page?  Like when the MC is shaking in fear, or someone's itching inexplicably, or something dark is rumbling towards the small unsuspecting town?  Well, PARANORMALCY is not like that.  It opens with hilarity and sarcasm.  The first page reads like a parody or a rom-com, and I love it for that.  I didn't even have to convince my hubby to buy it!  It's on my TBR pile.

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.  First of all, this is co-written, which rocks.  It takes a special kind of person to be able to pull this off, and these ladies are AMAZING.  Second, it opens with a prologue that sets up the scene and gives us a tasty chunk of foreshadowing/teasing.  I love this kind of prologue.  And thirdly, Chapter One opens with a dream sequence, which we've all read is a BIG NO-NO, but they get away with it because the dream is such an integral part of the story throughout the book.  I set out to read the beginning, and didn't even look up until page 50.  This is in my TBR pile, too.

THE SUMMONING, by Kelley Armstrong.  Can I just say, "AAAUUUGH!"  Prologues are pretty popular in paranormals, but this one had me totally freaked out, guys.  So, you want us to care about your protagonist?  Well, putting a toddler in a basement with an evil demon pretty much does that.  CHILLS.  And then the first chapter jerks us right up to the present, where our protag is 12 years older and worried about her Spanish midterms.  I liked the contrast here - it's clearly set in the real world, which is mundane and boring and has things like midterms, with a paranormal twist - and I am totally sucked in.  Another one on the pile.  (I have a really, really big pile.)

And in the words of Porky Pig, "Th-th-th-th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!"

How about you?  What beginnings stand out for you?

In Which I Curse Technology

I had such great plans for my weekend post - I was going to announce my HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA, with pictures of course, because what's a Halloween contest without pictures?  But the batteries in my camera have died.  I mean, really this time.  Like, I charge them, and I put them in my camera, and I press the power button, and it whirrs and clicks and dies immediately.  It doesn't even really turn ON.


BOO.


But this is okay!  I will announce my contest on TUESDAY, after I have gone to the Sony Store and bought new batteries.  Huzzah!

In the meantime, come by later today (Monday) for a super post on stand-out beginnings, and the books I found them in.

OMG, Guys! A Blog Award!

RaShelle Workman over at A No. 2 pencil stat! gave me this lovely blog award, guys! Isn't it beautiful? I love rainbows - they really are magical. And I LOVE cherries, especially the maraschino ones you get on cupcakes! (So they're full of chemicals - I love them, okay? They bring back happy childhood memories. Don't judge!) And my mantra is to choose joy - I believe that if you chose joy, then life will truly be good. So this is, in a lot of ways, the perfect award for me.


Thanks, RaShelle!  You really made my day!


And RaShelle's blog is pretty awesome, so make sure you go and check it out!


Of course, there is a protocol for this award, and in addition to thanking the person who gave it to me, I have to answer the following question: If I had the chance to go back and change one thing in my life, would I, and what would it be?


Ooh, good question. This is a toughie, because although there are things I would like to have done differently, I know that if I had, I might not have my wonderful husband or my beautiful kids in my life, and I would never want that. Maybe just focus more on writing and acting earlier on. I wish I had done that, instead of being in the position now where I feel kind of like I'm playing catch-up.


And now I get to fulfill my final obligation, which is to share the love by passing the award on to up to six other lovely bloggers out there! So without further ado, six people who I want to give this award to are:


1) Nathalie, over at Yup, I Read That - 'cause she is so funny, and her posts are so varied
2) Jennifer Hoffine, over at YA Audiobook Addict - who has the only audiobook blog I know of, and who is really smart
3) Casey McCormick, over at Literary Rambles - who has possibly the most informative writers' blog on the planet
4) Catherine Johnson, over at Kangaroobee's Blog - who posts some great tips and tricks
5) Rachael Harrie, over at Rach Writes - whose blog is awesome
6) Ali Cross, over at her self-named blog - who goes from funny to factual to helpful on her super blog


Those are some great blogs up there, guys, so check them out and offer them some congratulations for having such great blogs.


And have a great day!  I'll be back over the weekend with the announcement of my HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA!

BOO-FEST! and: CONTESTS!

I love blogfests.  I know some people hate them, but I like that they force me to write.  And since I don't get to pick the topic, they force me to write outside my comfort zone.  They keep me out of the writing-rut.

So go on down to Quinn's blog at Seeing, Dreaming...Writing to join in on this year's Boo-Fest on October 28th, in which I and a lot of other bloggers will be posting our real-life ghost stories.  SpooOOOooky!

ALSO: Tahereh (who spills her amazing self on her amazing blog, GO READ IT) is running a contest from now until October 19th to win BOOK MONEY!!!!!  It's easy to enter, so do it now before the contest ends!

ALSO: Check out the amazing BLOGIVERSARY ARC GIVEAWAY over at Sara McClung's blog, Babbling Flow.  And make sure you tell her I sent you!


Good Luck, everybody!

Wisdom on Wednesdays: Read With Intention

I did kind of an odd thing a few weeks ago.  It was one of those rare afternoons when I didn't have to worry about being anywhere or looking after anyone or even cooking anything, and I had no responsibilities whatsoever, and I had an assignment for this class I'm taking, so I holed up in the YA section of the bookstore and I just read.  And read.  And read.  And took notes.  And read some more.

The assignment was to write the beginning of a novel, so that's what I read - the beginnings.  Seventeen Prologues/First Chapters in one afternoon.  I made myself stop at the end of Chapter One every time, but I made a note of the books I wanted to get back to.

It was eye-opening, guys.  Firstly, there is an actual formula to these things.  Did you know this?  I would never have picked up on it if I had read each novel in its entirety before moving on to the next one, but reading just the beginnings back-to-back like that it became really obvious.  And there is a definite "tone" to the paranormal books.  (My WiP is a paranormal, so I stuck to that genre.)  And when I came across a book that had a really unique voice or a really unusual beginning, it jumped right out and grabbed me.  It was awesome!  Like reading extra-super-incredibly high-quality slush, except even better than that.  The difference between the books that have that buzz surrounding them and the books that don't was really clear to me after reading their beginnings.

So, that's my wisdom.  Read widely, but don't only read in the usual way.  Read with the intention of picking out the hidden formulas, and of picking out those things that stand out, that are unique, and that break from the mold and are better for it.  Read to figure out what makes these books work.

In Which I Bemoan My Schedule

I have tried to make myself into a morning writer. I have to get up at 6:30am anyway to get my kids onto the school bus on time, so I figured it would be the perfect time to get my daily workout in, grab a shower, and still have three solid hours to write, write, write. I scheduled my late afternoons for my kids, and my evenings for blogging and hubby time. Perfect, right?

WELL.

My body is sleepy in the morning; it doesn't like exercise at 6:00am, or 6:30am, or even 7:45am. And neither does my brain. I sit down in the morning to write and all I get is a long time of sitting and waiting for my brain to stop going, uuuuuuuuuuuuuhn. And then I surf the blogs, trying to wake up. And then my son gets home from preschool, and I still haven't really written anything.

My peak time has always been the night time. In high school, I used to set up shop sometime after 10 or 11 at night, and work into the wee hours. In college, my absolute best ideas and best work happened sometime between 1 and 4am, and the sweetest time of the night for me was just around 3:45 or 4, when the first notes of birdsong would drift through the pre-dawn skies.  The night is my time.  The rest of the world is sleeping, but I am AWAKE.

But, you know, kids. Staying up until 2 or 3am. It's not the best combo. So I'm thinking I'll give it another month before I try to make any sweeping changes; maybe if I can make myself sleep earlier, my brain will be more ready to work in the mornings. Maybe.

How about you? What is your best writing time? How do you make it mesh with your non-writing life?

100 Followers Giveaway WINNERS!

Sorry for the late post, guys - today is Thanksgiving here in Canada, so we're taking it easy here at the Mercurio household today - blueberry pancakes for breakfast, cartoons, turkey wrapped in its bacon blanket in the oven... (Mmmm...  Bacon-wrapped turkey...)

BUT, I promised you winners, and winners we have!

The WINNER of a query/first 5/full PB critique by Yours Truly is:

Kelly!!!

(YAY!  Applause, virtual confetti!)

And the WINNER of a signed copy of SHADE by Jeri Smith-Ready is:

Jemi Fraser!!!

(YAY!  Applause, virtual confetti!)

If you have email addresses linked to your profiles, then check your emails, ladies! If you don't, then EMAIL ME! My addy is up thar in that right-hand corner thar, under my lovely not-a-headshot.

And now it's time to get back to my family holiday-ing. Have a great day, everybody! Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone for playing! And if you missed out on the great prizes this time around, have no fear! Stay tuned for my Halloween contest extravaganza later this month!

Friday Favorites: Picture Books

FIRST: This is your last chance to enter my 100 Followers Giveaway of Awesome - it closes tonight at midnight.  So GO!  Comment!  WIN!


Back?  Good, 'cause today we're talking favorite picture books.  Yippee!

Not many people know this, but picture books are actually my favorite kind of book for pure joy.  I have novels that I've read and loved, (more on that in a couple of weeks), and I re-read them when I can and talk about them with other people, but a great picture book can make me crack a smile so big it's a wonder my jaw doesn't just drop right off.  So I thought I'd share some of my favorites, in no particular order.

THE GRUFFALO, by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler.  I love this book - I love the story, I love the rhythm of three, I love that it's in verse, I love that it circles back on itself, and I LOVE the twist at the end.  I also love reading it - the language in this book is superbly done.  And don't even get me started on the artwork - it's perfectly pitched for this age group.

FUNNYBONES, by Janet and Allen Ahlberg.  This is a book I read as a child, and although it is not in verse, it does have a rhythm to it which I love.  I love the way certain words are repeated throughout the story, and it's wonderful the way the kid is the one who solves the problems.  This is another book that circles back on itself at the end, which is great.

OLIVIA, written and illustrated by Ian Falconer.  This book makes me laugh out loud every time.  The contrast between the very, very understated text and the completely over-the-top illustrations really makes this book.  And who doesn't know a little "Olivia"?

I could go on, but I think I should stop at three and hand the floor over to you guys.

What are some of your favorite picture books?  What sets them apart from the rest?

I Heart Thursdays

Thursday is my favorite day of the week.  More accurately, Thursday night is my favorite night of the week.  TV Night.  


I know some writers shun TV - I used to do that.  But you know what?  My writing was stuck back in the '80s, and my dialogue was in the toilet.  (Some of my writing is still stuck in the '80s, but #donttellmyteacher - I'm working on that, I promise.)

TV is a way for those of us who don't live with representative members of our target audience to get with the program in terms of our dialogue.  Why pass up an opportunity like that?  I say, pick a new show every week that your audience watches, make up a big bowl of popcorn, grab your notepad, and settle in.  You just might learn something.

What do you think?  Are you a TV lover, or a TV shunner?

Wisdom on Wednesdays: List Love

FIRST: If you haven't entered my 100 Followers Giveaway of Awesome yet, go and do it now.  All you have to do is be a follower, and leave a comment to win either a signed hardback copy of SHADE by Jeri Smith-Ready or a critique of your work by me.  Okay, now that you're back, we can move on to today's post.

I have major List Love today.  Lists are great.  Lists turn a daunting task into a simple achievable one.  Lists have items that get crossed out.  (And we all love sweeping our red pens through the completed items on our lists, don't we?  YES, I have FINISHED you, my life is COMPLETE!  Bwa-ha-haaaaa!)  Lists are how we remember everything.

I'm talking all kinds of lists: shopping lists, to-do lists, character lists...

Yeah, I said Character Lists.  When you get a piece of paper for each character in your WIP and write on it everything you know about that character, so you can refer to it as you write and make sure your character stays consistent and true to form.

You have those, right?