Write Me A World: December 2012

Year-in-Review

Before we completely say goodbye to 2012, let's take a look back. What were some of your favorite writing moments this year? Favorite accomplishments? New books discovered?

Here's my top five:

Bransforumfest - I got to hang out with a bunch of amazing writing buddies in Las Vegas for a week and meet the author/former agent extraordinaire Nathan Bransford for the inaugural Bransforumfest. It was a blast! And kinda crazy, since we completely made this conference up on the forums and then brought it to life (Kudos, Sommer!). I learned so much and am crossing my fingers for a Bransforumfest 2013.
Meeting Brandon Sanderson - Um, yeah, I may have been a little excited for this one, seeing as he's one of the current authors I admire most in the industry and he's finishing my most beloved series of all time!! It was fantastic to hear his advice in the workshops, and yes, I did get his autograph, and yes, I did act like a fan girl.
Finishing the draft of Rain Reader, which I LOVE! - I'd had the story rolling around in my head for a couple years and I knew it was a good one, but I wasn't prepared for how much I fell in love with these characters. All marketing, queries and blogging aside, for me, my actual writing time is what means the most, and this story flowed like buttah. There were several stretches where I was writing 1,000-plus words a night, and that's a lot for me. (For those of you who now want to throw things at me, don't worry. There were A LOT of nights where I wrote a big fat zero, too).
Launching an e-short - This was one of the things I really wanted to try this year, and I was pretty happy with how the process went for Running in the Dark. I knew I wanted to experiment with e-publishing for my short stuff, before I even remotely thought about it for novels, and I'm so glad I did.
Hanging out with all you lovely folks! - Seriously. This year was great fun in the blogging world. I did the A-to-Z challenge for the first time, hosted a blogfest and did so many other wacky, amazing fests and hops too. Thanks for sticking around!

Most Improved
I was also thinking about my "most improved" -- the writing aspect I feel I've made the most progress on in the last year. I'd have to say for me it's dialogue.

I've always been decent at writing the actual words for dialogue, but I typically used it as only secondary to description and action to move the plot along. Some of the fantastic authors I'd been reading could advance the story almost solely on dialogue, and I wanted to try that more.

I think I did it...guess we'll have to see what the judges (ahem, readers and agents, ahem) say.

Do you have a most improved?

Best of 2012
As I did last year, here's my round-up of favorite things from 2012.

Fave Newly-discovered Book: The Way of Shadows, Brent Weeks
Fave Movie: The Avengers
Fave New-to-Me TV Series: Firefly, which I finally saw and loved!! Runners-up: Nikita and Beauty & the Beast.
Fave TV Episode: How I Met Your Mother - The Final Page, Part Two
Fave New Pandora Artists: Fun, Ramin Karimloo, Kip Moore, Of Monsters and Men, Hey Rosetta, St. Leonards, Fort Atlantic.

Happy New Year! Wherever you're reading this on the globe, I hope you usher in a wonderful 2013!

Build Me A Blog-hop

I'm participating in this great blog hop from David Powers King, who's celebrating more than 800 followers on his awesome blog! He's partying by giving away the creation of a blog banner, image or avatar. All we have to do is provide a 200 word description.

Here we go:

Imagine a book. An ancient well-loved tome, with a worn leather cover, lying open on its spine, pages facing up, open for all to see. From the center crease of those pages, a warm glow of greenish purple-blue rises. The glow of imagination. And, in an arc from that center, all kinds of fantastic adventures await - icons of a ship, a dragon, a galaxy, maybe even a sword or wizard. Each one waiting to whisk you off to another world through writing or reading.

Okay, that's a bit of writerly flourish but I'd love to be able to work an image similar to this into my blog banner. I think it'd be a great fit for the blog's name, too. The idea that written words can take you anywhere.

Thanks a million to David and to the talented designers behind the prize!!

And if you missed the 12 Days of Querying yesterday, it's here.

The 12 Days of Querying

To usher in the Christmas cheer, I give you...a writerly twist on a holiday classic. ;)

On the first day of querying, the agent gave to me:

A kindly worded form rejection

On the second day of querying, the agent gave to me:

Two “Try agains”
And a kindly worded form rejection

On the third day of querying, the agent gave to me:

Three “Hell No’s”
Two “Try agains”
And a kindly worded form rejection

On the fourth day of querying, the agent gave to me:

Four “Closed to queries”
Three “Hell No’s”
Two “Try agains”
And a kindly worded form rejection

On the fifth day of querying, the agent gave to me:

“500K is too long!!”
Four “Closed to queries”
Three “Hell No’s”
Two “Try agains”
And a kindly worded form rejection

On the sixth day of querying, the agent gave to me:

Six “Not for us’s”*
“500K is too long!!”
Four “Closed to queries”
Three “Hell No’s”
Two “Try agains”
And a kindly worded form rejection

On the seventh day of querying, the agent gave to me:

Seven “Where’s the plotlines?"
Six “Not for us’s”
“500K is too long!!"
Four “Closed to queries”
Three “Hell No’s”
Two “Try agains”
And a kindly worded form rejection

On the eighth day of querying, the agent gave to me:

Eight non-responses
Seven “Where’s the plotlines?"
Six “Not for us’s”
“500K is too long!!"
Four “Closed to queries”
Three “Hell No’s”
Two “Try agains”
And a kindly worded form rejection

On the ninth day of querying, the agent gave to me:

Nine “I don’t get its”
Eight non-responses
Seven “Where’s the plotlines?"
Six “Not for us’s”
“500K is too long!!"
Four “Closed to queries”
Three “Hell No’s”
Two “Try agains”
And a kindly worded form rejection

On the tenth day of querying, the agent gave to me:

Ten “I can’t sell this”
Nine “I don’t get its”
Eight non-responses
Seven “Where’s the plotlines?"
Six “Not for us’s”
“500K is too long!!"
Four “Closed to queries”
Three “Hell No’s”
Two “Try agains”
And a kindly worded form rejection

On the eleventh day of querying, the agent gave to me:

Eleven “Not-my-genres”
Ten “I can’t sell this”
Nine “I don’t get its”
Eight non-responses
Seven “Where’s the plotlines?"
Six “Not for us’s”
“500K is too long!!"
Four “Closed to queries”
Three “Hell No’s”
Two “Try agains”
And a kindly worded form rejection

On the twelfth day of querying, the agent gave to me:

Twelve “I need whiskeys”
Eleven “Not-my-genres”
Ten “I can’t sell this”
Nine “I don’t get its”
Eight non-responses
Seven “Where’s the plotlines?"
Six “Not for us’s”
“500K is too long!!"
Four “Closed to queries”
Three “Hell No’s”
Two “Try agains”
And a kindly worded form rejection

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

*Us’s is a rare and technical term that rhymes with “hippopotamuses”

Stocking Stuffers

Looking for that extra little gift for friends this holiday? Why not stuff their Kindles (or yours) full of new books? These are all $2.99 or below:

Become and Desolate,
Ali Cross
Blindsided,
Kyra Lennon
Cassa series,
Alex J. Cavanaugh
Into the Dark,
Milly Silver
Provex City,
Michael Pierce
Regret,
Elana Johnson
The Marquis,
Christine Rains
Women of Foxwick,
Cherie Reich

I'll add a shameless plug for my own Running in the Dark. And if you're hungry for even more great books, check out this list of 25 free e-book Christmas classics from GalleyCat.

I'm sure I've missed folks with really amazing books, so help me out and leave 'em in the comments trail. I'll add them to the list!

Deja Vu!

Clearly, I'm having a bout of deja vu over here or something, because I'm totally behind in posting for this awesome hop hosted by Write Club heavy-weight DL Hammons.

The idea is to highlight a past post that people might not have seen before, or that you think is so fun you want to share it again. Here's one of my favorites from back in February. And if you're looking for more to catch up on, check out the "Popular Posts" list in the sidebar.

You Might Be A Writer If...

To steal a page from Jeff Foxworthy’s book, you might be a writer if:

You narrate your life in 3rd person
The word “query” makes your eye tic (“synopsis” brings out full-on conniptions)
The month of November both excites and intimidates you
You understand the terms Miss Snark and Bransforums
You own a thesaurus and the cover is worn with use
You know exactly how many times you’ve used the word “was” in your manuscript
When people say the name Janet, you immediately picture a hungry shark
You walk through a bookstore and realize you’ve shared blog comments, tweets or emails with at least one of the new-release authors within the last month or so
You walk through a bookstore and can immediately name the agent of at least one new-release author
You spend more time with your characters than with your friends
You know more about your characters than you do about your friends
A portion of your brain is constantly working on your plot...even at 3 a.m.
You grin like a madman (or madwoman) after each particularly kick-ass writing session
You’re pretty certain beta readers are actually worth their weight in gold

*Additions from the Comments Trail*

You've skipped meals because you were too busy writing.
You find yourself thinking 'that would make a really great story' when someone is telling you something that has happened to you and you're meant to be acting like a sympathetic friend.
When you find yourself eager to recommend books in your genre to people at the library. This is especially concerning if you're an adult browsing the MG fiction shelves.
You often drift off in the middle of a conversation and have to make excuses to leave because you have just had a great idea about your manuscript.
You've been pitched an idea from a friend or family member who then expects you to run off and write their novel.
You just can't stop revising, when there's always one more thing you need to fix.

Keep the list going – add your own!

Secret Ninja Man

It's here! Alex Fest 2012! Thanks to Mark Koopmans, Morgan Shamy, David Powers King and Stephen Tremp for throwing a virtual toast to the lead ninja himself.

In +/- 20 words, what does Alex look like?
Mysterious, wise and writerly, with a guitar on his back. Of course.

In +/- 20 words, who could play Alex in a documentary? (Living or dead.)

C’mon - Antonio Banderas - he’s got the ninja-esque mask AND the guitar!

In +/- 20 words, who does Alex remind you of?

Master Splinter, Mister Miyagi, Yoda...Does the word sensei come to mind?

In +/- 100 words, (excluding the title) write flash fiction using all these prompts (Cavanaugh, ninja, IWSG, Cosbolt, guitar):

Somewhere in the depths of intergalactic command...

M: Gentleman, we have a situation. An out-of-control Cosbolt chock-full of panicking insecure writers is hurtling across the blogosphere. This requires our very best. *cue music, a shadowy figure enters*

Agent 1: Who’s this guy?

Agent 2: We, uh, we didn’t have time to give him a proper hyperlink. I hear he’s some type of ninja.

Ninja 007: Cavanaugh. Alex Cavanaugh. I’ll take my scenes shown, not told.

Agent 1: Does he have a...guitar?

M: Cavanaugh. We’re running out of time. No one can get through to these writers!

Ninja 007: No problem, ma'am. I can handle it.

M: How? You been a Cosbolt pilot before?

Ninja 007: Better. I write one.

M: Our computer can only maintain its link with the ship for four keystrokes. We’ve got to get it under control before literary disaster strikes!

Ninja 007: I got this one. *typing* I.W.S.G.

M: IWS…wha?

Ninja 007: The solution to all your problems.

For Bonus Points:
In +/- 40 words, leave a comment for Mrs. Cavanaugh - thanking her for sharing

You're a font of patience and support! Thanks for being the lady behind the ninja.

Introducing Milly Silver!

You guys, I'm so excited! Remember Karen Philips from this great interview on my blog? Well, Karen has a shiny new book and a shiny new pen name - Milly Silver! (And, yes, she's okay with me spilling the beans).

The first installment of her YA paranormal adventure, Into the Dark, is available on Amazon. The second one will be available soon, so don't worry...you won't be waiting long.

*This just in: The second volume's live!*

It's a fun read if you like YA adventure/romance with a little real-world medical science thrown in on the side.

Karen and I became writing buddies through the Bransforums a couple years ago. Into the Dark was the first piece I read of hers, and I really enjoyed it. I'm so happy to announce it's birth out into the world. ;)

Stop by and wish Karen/Milly congrats yourself at her new blog.

In Which I Answer Questions...

Waaay back in the day (I mean, like, October. Yikes!), a couple lovely gals gave me some blog awards.

#1 - Gina at Diary of a Writer in Progress gave me The Next Big Thing Award with strict instructions that she wanted to know more about what was up my sleeve with my novels. This one's for you, Gina.

What is the working title of your book? Windfarer

Where did the idea for the book come from? It's been rolling around in my head FOREVER! The first scene that came to me is actually from book two, and it was from a dream. Other influences were a) the animated movie Anastasia, b) Garth Nix's Seventh Tower series and c) the fact that I've always liked tall ships. Not necessarily in that order.

What genre does your book fall under? Epic fantasy

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book? A seafaring star-mage and a mountain-born dragonrider must join forces to stop a ruler whose plan to avenge a long-dead woman threatens to extinguish the stars and destroy both their worlds.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I'm hoping for traditional but keeping my options open. I've had some agency interest in the past, so we'll see where it goes.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? Ha. Um...six years. From the point I started seriously working at it, it was about three.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? I wanted the tone to be similar to Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince series and some of Shepherd Smith's stuff might also be a close match. Oh, geez, now I really sound dragon-obssessed, but it's more about the ships than the dragons anyway. :)

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest? Besides my MCs? The bad guy. He was a lot of fun to write! He's in love with a dead woman, plus, you know, he's evil. I also did a switch on the classic mentor role. Instead of helping, my MC's "mentor" is actively trying to keep things from her...but is she right?

#2 - Laura at From the Desk of Laura Stephenson nominated me for the Liebster Award, which I've gotten a couple times in the past so I'll stick to the flash fiction version of answers:

Who's your favorite author and what do you love most about their writing? Robert Jordan. His characterization.

If you had the means to, what is the one thing you wish you could buy, right now? Time.

Favorite hot drink? Spiced cider

Favorite season? Summer

How do you spend your free time? What is this free time you speak of?

If you could have only one type of pet for the rest of your life, what would it be?

A black lab.