Congrats Nina! I'll shoot you an e-mail.
MONSTER TOWN Winner!
The winner of MONSTER TOWN and an original piece of character art by Garrett Vander Leun is...
Tip Tuesday #131
Tip Tuesday features writers' tips on craft, research, querying,
blogging, marketing, inspiration, and more. If you'd like to send in a
tip, please e-mail me at agentspotlight(at)gmail(dot)com.
Today's fun tip was sent in by Christie Wright Wild. Please check out Christie's website and blog as well as her past two tips submissions, #91 and #117.
Today's fun tip was sent in by Christie Wright Wild. Please check out Christie's website and blog as well as her past two tips submissions, #91 and #117.
If you write chapter books or picture books, here's a great way to connect to kids.
Read kid's joke and riddle books. The kid humor is witty and silly. It will help you to connect to that funny bone we as adults often forget about. Getting down on their level of funny will help you create punchlines, endings, and might even spark an idea for a new book!
Anybody want to share one of your children's favorite jokes?
Christie Wright Wild
JENNIFER BOSWORTH INTERVIEW AND STRUCK GIVEAWAY
Today I’m excited to interview debut author Jennifer
Bosworth whose debut book STRUCK was released on May 8, 2012. One of the things
I enjoyed about this is that Maya is a lightening addict. And we explore what
could become of our world if it was being destroyed by lightening storms and
catastrophic earthquakes.
Sorry in advance for Blogger's weird text changes that I can't figure out how to correct.
Here’s a description from Goodreads:
Mia Price is a
lightning addict. She’s survived countless strikes, but her craving to
connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of
those around her.
Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.
Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn’t who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.
Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.
Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn’t who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.
Hi Jennifer. Thanks so much for joining us.
1. Tell
us a bit about yourself and how you became a writer.
Much to the dismay of my parents,
the only thing I’ve ever wanted to be is a writer. I always wrote short
stories, and I started writing terrible novels in my teen years, novels that I
never finished, and that’s not a tragedy. I majored in English at the
University of Utah, but I can’t say I learned anything about writing in college
that I couldn’t have learned through a subscription to Writer’s Digest. (PS, if
you are a writer and you don’t have a subscription, get one) After graduating,
I worked as a copywriter, and taught some adult education classes on writing
horror, fantasy, and science fiction.
The first two novels I wrote were .
. . I’m not going to say terrible. They were unpublishable, in part because
they were each more than 800 pages long. That’s too long for a first book from
an unknown author. Also, I didn’t realize I had more of a YA voice than an
adult voice. Once I started writing YA (once I found out there was a YA genre)
everything fell into place.
2. It's good to know that I'm not the only one whose first novel was too long. One
of the things that drew me to your book was the idea of Mia’s power being
lightening and the whole idea that lightening storms and catastrophic
earthquakes could destroy our world. How did you come up with these ideas?
I like to base my
supernatural in the natural, the vaguely, maybe possible. I’d never thought
much about what lightning was capable of until I stumbled across some bizarre
facts about the phenomena, and about real life human lightning rods. I began
researching lightning and all the bizarre things it can do to people, and I was
hooked. I had to write about it.
Connecting lightning to
earthquakes was all about energy. When a certain kind of energy caused by
pressure and friction builds up along an active fault line, you get an
earthquake. I thought, “What if a fault line got the equivalent of a jumpstart
from a bolt of lightning? Could that set it off?”
3. I never knew people could be lightening rods. How interesting. Mia
has a lot to deal with—a world falling apart, hiding her powers, and a
dysfunctional mother and a brother she doesn’t see eye to eye with. What were
some of the challenges in creating her as a character?
Avoiding “whiney
character” syndrome. I wanted Mia to be tough, but I also needed her to be
effected by all that was going on in her life. It’s incredibly hard to strike
that balance between angst and toughness. Mia is strong, she’s powerful, but
she cares about something deeply, and so I hit her where she lived so I could
wrench the appropriate kind of angst from her. I pushed Mia to the brink to see
how long it would take to break her. As it turned out, she’s even tougher than
I thought.
4. Awesome that you recognized the challenge. And you did a great job not making her whiney. Most
dystopian and post-apocalyptic deal with a society controlled by the
government. But in STRUCK, the government feels pretty unequipped to handle the
situation and the Prophet, the leader of a religious cult, is trying to take
control. I found that fascinating. Tell us what made you choose tackle this
very emotional for some people issue and one not very explored in YA books?
I’ve been obsessed with cults for
as long as I can remember. I was born in 1978, the year the Jonestown Massacre
occurred, so I wonder if my lizard/baby brain remembers everyone talking about
that tragic event. When I was a little older, I started having recurring
nightmares that a cult had formed in our town, nightmares so real I started to
believe they weren’t dreams at all. I was in high school when Aum Shinrikyo
attempted to kick-start Armageddon. Shortly after that, the Branch Dividian
siege in Waco, Texas went down. Add to that, I grew up in Utah, where we were
always on the lookout for renegade fundamentalist polygamists. They were easy
to spot. For the most part, they look just like the polygamists who live on the
compound in Big Love.
Aside from my cult obsession, I wanted Struck to convey
something a bit more serious. I grew up in an extremely religious community,
and as a kid I didn’t feel like I was encouraged to think for myself. It seemed
like adults were always telling me what I believed as opposed to asking me to
decide for myself. Part of the reason I created my character, Mia Price, is
because I love the idea of pitting a cynical teenager who doesn’t believe in
much of anything against two doomsday cults, both of who are trying to force their
beliefs on her. If there is a subliminal message in Struck, it is this: don’t
let anyone else do your thinking for you. Not a political leader, not a
teacher, not a religious leader, not even a parent. Listen to them, but don’t
believe blindly.
5. So interesting how you drew on an obsession from your childhood and your religious experiences. Share
with us how you obtained representation by your agent Jamie Weiss Chilton and
your road to publication. I read your book went to auction and I’d love hearing
about that.
I pitched to Jamie at
the Santa Barbara Writers Conference four years ago. At the time, Struck was
only half finished, so when she asked for the full manuscript I had to hurry
and write the last 150 pages in a week, because I didn’t want to tell her the
book wasn’t done. She read the book and gave me notes, but didn’t sign me right
away. I’d never revised for an agent before, so I had no idea how to address
her notes. I ended up completely rewriting the book, which Jamie did not
expect. She was a little uncertain at first, but eventually signed me and we
did a few more rounds of revisions together. Those revisions are the reason
Struck went to auction. Jamie helped me turn this book into the book it was
meant to be.
Going to auction is a
surreal experience. It’s one of the few times a new author will feel like the
power is in her hands. Four editors from major houses participated in the
auction, so I got to talk to all of them and hear what they had in mind for the
book. All of the editors were wonderful, but I clicked with Janine O’Malley of
FSG/Macmillan, and I trusted her vision for the book.
6. I can't imagine writing 150 pages in a week. Sounds like we all want to go to auction and experience being in power for once. Marketing
is a big part of being an author. What have you learned from other authors who
debuted before you and how is that shaping your own marketing plan? What advice
do you have for us aspiring authors?
I’ll start with my
advice for aspiring authors, and it is this: you don’t need to worry about
marketing until you have something to market. If you find that Twitter and
blogging are getting in the way of you actually writing, shut it down. Write
first, market later. I didn’t get on Twitter until a year after Struck sold,
and that didn’t hurt me one bit. But if you truly enjoy blogging and FBing and
Tweeting like mad, AND you still have time to write, have at it.
That being said . . . a
lot of the marketing we authors do tends to feel like shouting into the dark.
It’s difficult to track results. What’s worked the best for me is to be genuine
and enthusiastic, and to try to entertain people at the same time that I’m
selling them on my book.
7. Thank you so much for saying we don't have to be on Twitter yet. I may join but have been obsessing about it. It's so freeing to know that can wait if I need to not join now and focus on the writing. What
are you working on now?
I’m having a hard time
keeping track of my own projects. So many of them!! I’m finishing up two
books––a psychological horror and a post-apocalyptic fantasy western––and
writing proposals for others. I’m also working on several horror screenplays.
My true love is horror, so I hope I end up finding a place for myself as a
horror author in both YA, adult, and film.
That's great you're so productive. Thanks Jennifer for sharing all your advice. You can
find Jennifer at her website, Facebook, and Twitter.
Here's what's coming up:
On Wednesday I'm participating in an Indie Book Giveaway Hop. I have an awesome giveaway planned.
And Friday I'll be posting my NEVER SURRENDER BLOGFEST post. I'll be sharing a very personal story so I hope you'll stop by. Don't forget to enter my contest for Elana Johnson's book SURRENDER. The link is at the top of the blog. And I just won a copy of her e-book REGRET. Since I have it, I'm giving away the copy I won.
Next Monday I'm interviewing Lynda Mullaly Hunt and giving away a copy of ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, a contemporary story I really, really enjoyed.
And don't forget our Tuesday Tips and Casey's Agent Spotlights on Thursdays.
Hope to see you on Wednesday!
WANTED: Beta Readers for Shaun
Happy Friday, everyone!
Today I'm posting a "wanted ad" for adult fiction writer Shaun Mitchell. While this is mostly a kidlit blog, I know some of you read and write other genres and might be a fit for Shaun. Here's some info about his novel and what he's looking for:
Interested? Please e-mail Shaun directly at shaunj7029(at)aim(dot)com.
Today I'm posting a "wanted ad" for adult fiction writer Shaun Mitchell. While this is mostly a kidlit blog, I know some of you read and write other genres and might be a fit for Shaun. Here's some info about his novel and what he's looking for:
This is an adult fiction novel set in Newark, NJ from 1967-early 90's. I'm looking to have my first few chapters read for the time being.
My novel, written in short vignette-like flashes, is about one man's fall into addiction while searching for love. The main character, Soul, uses his addiction to replace the need and want for love and pictures his drug of choice as a woman; his lover, when he locks himself away from the world in abandoned buildings and motel rooms. The novel follows Soul's turbulent childhood, his ill-fated romantic pursuits, and his crawl off love's battlefield when Reagan takes over the war on drugs. My book Life in Marvelous Times was inspired by the song of the same name written by Brooklyn, NY MC Mos Def.
In his 2009 single “Life in Marvelous Times,” Mos Def declares that “we are alive in amazing times.” The lyrical images that follow those opening lines, the sleeve artwork, and the fan-made video Mos Def chose to represent the song suggest that the meaning of “marvelous” and “amazing” must mean “to cause wonder," “to astonish,” and “to bewilder.” According to Mos Def, we must be amazed and marvel at how “basic survival requires super heroics”; we must be amazed by both “delicate hearts” and “diabolical minds,” we must be amazed and marvel at the “revelations, hatred, love and war.” I wanted to write something that captured the message of that single. I've included two different excerpts; the first from Soul's childhood and the second from his adulthood.
Excerpt 1:
Our reality looks like a blazing shack spitting a gray ash of burnt memories into the mouth of an immovable night. Probably because that’s exactly what it is. It is just a scorching star of a home we used to live in, roaring against a galaxy of pavement beneath our feet. It swallows the wind into its heat and releases the air that kisses my mother’s hands so hard it hurts to watch as they wave goodbye to the home she kept. We listen to the violent music of her screams begging for it all to stay. Daddy puts his pain on his face. Then, as everything implodes and crumbles into itself, he says, it’s all gone.
Everything is nothing now.
Excerpt 2:
The sky in the room is snowing with asbestos; the walls are all peeling themselves away from the building’s bones as if they’ll walk away and abandon the place like the rest of the city had done. The only light in the room peeks through the gaps and slivers of cardboard taped to the window I jumped through last week. It would’ve been hell if it didn’t feel so much like heaven.
Interested? Please e-mail Shaun directly at shaunj7029(at)aim(dot)com.
ELLE STRAUSS INTERVIEW AND LIKE CLOCKWORK GIVEAWAY
Hi everyone! First, I'm going to announce the winner of TORN. The winner is:
STINA LINDENBLATT!
Congrats! E-mail me your address so I can send you your book.
Today I’m excited to interview Elle Strauss
about her new book LIKE CLOCKWORK that was released on
May 17, 2012. I was excited when Elle asked if I’d be interested in
interviewing her because her books deal with time travel, something I don’t see
in too many books, but that adds a whole different twist to the story.
Here’s a blurb about LIKE
CLOCKWORK from Goodreads:
Adeline Savoy had hoped
that the move west from Cambridge to Hollywood with her single dad
would mean they’d finally bond like a real family, but all she got was a
father too busy with his new female friends and his passion for acting
to really see her.
Instead she finds herself getting attached to Faye, the divorcee hair dresser she befriends when she travels back in time to 1955. Plus Faye has a hottie, James Dean-esque, bad-boy brother who has Adeline’s heart all aflutter. But bad boys from the past can be dangerous.
Is is possible that Adeline really does belong in her own time and that maybe the right boy lives as close as next door?
Instead she finds herself getting attached to Faye, the divorcee hair dresser she befriends when she travels back in time to 1955. Plus Faye has a hottie, James Dean-esque, bad-boy brother who has Adeline’s heart all aflutter. But bad boys from the past can be dangerous.
Is is possible that Adeline really does belong in her own time and that maybe the right boy lives as close as next door?
Hi Elle. Thanks so much for
joining us.
1. Tell us about yourself and why you became a
writer.
I’m a married
mother of four grown kids. I became a writer when they were little because they
kept getting into my paints.
2. That's a fun reason to start writing and one I've never heard before. For those of us who might not have read any
of your books in the Clockwise series, tell us a bit about them.
Clockwise is
about a teen time traveler who accidentally takes her secret crush back in
time. Awkward. In the sequel Clockwiser,
Casey accidentally takes her rebellious brother back in time. He joins the
union army and she and Nate have to save him.
3. I love how you can describe the essence of them in one or two sentences. Guys, don't they sound awesome? CLOCKWISE and CLOCKWISER followed Casey’s
time traveling experiences. But LIKE CLOCKWORK is a companion book dealing with
a new character Adeline. What made you decide to write a companion book rather
than continue with Casey’s story?
I hadn’t
planned on writing a sequel originally. I had the idea for Adeline’s story from
the start and that was why I wrote her into Clockwise. I decided to write the
sequel after the fact.
4. In LIKE CLOCKWORK, you’ve picked an
interesting setting, Hollywood, and have Adeline travel back in time to 1955.
What research did you have to do to create a realistic Hollywood
setting and to get the details of 1955 right? Was this any different than the
other books in the series where Casey goes back in time to the 1800’s?
The difference
is that there are still people alive who lived through the fifties, plus there
is a lot of well known media, like movies and books written in the fifties. On the
one hand there’s a lot of material to research, and on the other people know if
you get it wrong. I visited Hollywood a few years back and Google Earth was a
great tool to study the setting.
5. So true that people would be able to tell if you make a mistake with the 1950's. I hadn't thought of that. Awesome you went to Hollywood not too long ago. Share a bit about Adele and the challenges of
creating her as a character, especially since she feels more comfortable in
1955 than the present time.
Her character
came to me quite naturally. I wanted to make sure she was different from Casey,
so I made her more cynical and gave her the opposite desire. Where Casey wanted
to stay normal in the present, Adeline felt more at home in the past.
6. What made you decide to
self-publish your books and what advice do you have for others who are debating
between the traditional vs. self-publishing routes?
I had an agent
with Clockwise and even though it went out on submission to editors it didn’t
sell. I asked my agent about self-publishing it, since we both believed in it,
and she encouraged me to do it.
I love hanging
out on Wattpad, that’s where a lot of teens hang out. Word of mouth is the best
marketing.
9. No one's ever mentioned Wattpadd before. That's a great idea Elle. What are you working on now?
I’m working on
my next series which is totally different in tone. It’s YA science fiction set
in the near future where a girl who’s been genetically manipulated needs the
help of a “natural” boy to solve the mystery of her missing brother.
But first, my
YA merfolk book SEAWEED will be released this summer, so make sure to watch out
for it!
Thanks Elle for sharing all
your advice. Good luck with all your books. You can find Elle at her blog, Facebook,Twitter, Amazon, and Smashwords.
And CLOCKWISE, Elle's first book, is free. So go check it out!
And CLOCKWISE, Elle's first book, is free. So go check it out!
I'm giving one kindle version of LIKE CLOCKWORK away. Don't have a kindle? I don't either. But I downloaded Kindle on my computer. You can too. It's easy and a great way to read e-books.
And in case you weren't here on Monday, I want to shout out about Elana Johnson's awesome NEVER SURRENDER BLOGFEST to celebrate the release of SURRENDER. It's happening all next week. All you have to do is post about a time you didn't surrender to some hard thing in your life. If you don't blog, Elana's got a way for you to post to Facebook or Pinterest. And if you participate, you can enter her contest for 3 $15 B&N gift cards and will get a SURRENDER swag package
Have
you signed up yet? I have! I'm busy next week so I'll have to wait till
Friday to post my story. But I'm super excited to participate. And I
hope many of you will participate too. Elana has given so much to us
all--organizing WriteOnCon, giving query critiques and advice, and being
a good friend.
I'd
love to see her have a big Blogfest with LOTS of participants all week. I'm giving away an ARC of SURRENDER. And I just won a copy of her e-book REGRET. I'm giving that away too! The link is at the top of our blog. So if you sign up for her Blogfest (that means post a Blogfest post
that week), I'll give you 5 extra entries in my contest. And if you
shout out about the Blogfest on your blog or Facebook, I'll give you 2
more extra entries for that too. Go here to sign up.
And here's what's coming up:
On Monday, I'm interviewing debut author Jennifer Bosworth and giving away an ARC of STRUCK, an awesome dystopian book.
Next Wednesday I'm participating in an Indie Book Giveaway Hop. I have an awesome giveaway planned.
And Friday I'll be posting my NEVER SURRENDER BLOGFEST post. I'll be sharing a very personal story so I hope you'll stop by.
And here's what's coming up:
On Monday, I'm interviewing debut author Jennifer Bosworth and giving away an ARC of STRUCK, an awesome dystopian book.
Next Wednesday I'm participating in an Indie Book Giveaway Hop. I have an awesome giveaway planned.
And Friday I'll be posting my NEVER SURRENDER BLOGFEST post. I'll be sharing a very personal story so I hope you'll stop by.
And don't forget our Tuesday Tips and Casey's Agent Spotlights on Thursdays.
Hope to see you on Monday!
Tip Tuesday #130
Tip Tuesday features writers' tips on craft, research, querying,
blogging, marketing, inspiration, and more. If you'd like to send in a
tip, please e-mail me at agentspotlight(at)gmail(dot)com.
Today's tip comes from Kristin Lenz who contributes to the YA Fusion blog. This week she's reviewing The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. The authors are the team behind the popular blog, The Bookshelf Muse. A few weeks ago, Natalie participated in the Random Acts of Kindness Blitz to celebrate the book's launch. The Emotion Thesaurus is full of writing tips, so read Kristin's review here to get the inside scoop on this resourceful guide. Kristin's tip:
Today's tip comes from Kristin Lenz who contributes to the YA Fusion blog. This week she's reviewing The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. The authors are the team behind the popular blog, The Bookshelf Muse. A few weeks ago, Natalie participated in the Random Acts of Kindness Blitz to celebrate the book's launch. The Emotion Thesaurus is full of writing tips, so read Kristin's review here to get the inside scoop on this resourceful guide. Kristin's tip:
Here's an online dictionary that might be familiar to comic book writers, and it will come in handy for any writer who's trying to spell a sound. The Written Sound is an entire website devoted to onomatopoeia and how to write the sound of things. For example, flumppf: sound of a wad of mail as it falls from a letter-box, or kish-kish: the sound of ice skates during a game of hockey, or Kaaahhkkk: sound of a cat coughing up a hairball. Can you guess what makes this sound? schwump schwump schwump schwump. (Windshield wipers of a car during heavy rain.) You can search under categories of sounds such as human, animals, explosions, movement, automotive, weather, or music. Imagine you are plucking the strings of a bass guitar: dirnt, dirnt, dirnt - this one has an interesting story about its origin. There are also plenty of humorous examples that make the site worth browsing just for fun, such as badonkadonk. I'll let you look that one up, and I dare you to use it in a story!
Kristin Lenz
ELANA JOHNSON INTERVIEW AND GIVEAWAY OF SURRENDER
Today I’m super excited to help Elana Johnson
celebrate her new book SURRENDER that’s being released tomorrow. I’ll be
honest. When I interviewed Elana last year when POSSESSION debuted and she said
she was doing a companion book, my daughter and I weren’t so sure we’d like it
as much. But when my ARC came, we had to share read it because we both couldn’t
wait to start it. (Being the nice mom, I got to read when my daughter went to
bed and she got the book all day.) We both had the same reaction—LOVED IT.
Seriously guys, it’s one of the best second books in a series I’ve read. It’s
action packed with lots of plot twists and full of super awesome characters
like the main characters Raine and Gunner.
We’re not going to talk about Elana’s debut today,
but if you want to read my interview with Elana last June, go here.
Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:
Forbidden love, intoxicating power, and the terror of control…
Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.
All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn. Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque....
Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.
All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn. Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque....
Hi Elana! We’re so excited you’re here!
1.
Tell
us why you chose to write a companion novel rather than a sequel spotlighting
Jag and Vi’s life.
Well, for those who haven’t read
POSSESSION – spoiler alert! – it’s a tragedy. In a brainwashing society. So Vi,
the narrator, couldn’t really mentally handle another novel. I really had no
idea what to do when the topic of writing another book came up, but I knew it
couldn’t be a direct sequel. So the thought of doing something companion-y like
Carrie Ryan’s THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH came to mind.
I even tried to write the book from
the POV of Jag Barque’s son. Yeah, read that again. Ha! It obviously didn’t
work—in fact, there were many attempts that didn’t work until I finally thought
to start with brand new characters.
2.
That's so funny what you said about Vi not being able to handle another book. But you did such a great job making this book a part of the series. It seriously blew me away One
of the things I loved about SURRENDER is Raine and Gunner. Raine is so smart
and brave in defying her dad, who is the creepy director. And Gunner is such a
nice, dependable guy you can’t help falling in love with. Tell us how you
developed them as characters and share some tips on how to create really
memorable characters like you’ve done.
Um. Shoot! I don’t know. I wanted
Raine to be strong yet vulnerable. She actually gets weaker and weaker
throughout the book, and that was hard to write, because most characters grow
and change and overcome their
weaknesses. I think we sometimes connect to that, because sometimes we can’t
overcome our weaknesses, even when we try.
I wanted Gunn to be steady, but sort of wild too—in an under-the-surface kind of way. I wanted him to hold his own against Jag Barque, so that was something I worked toward as I developed Gunn.
I think character development can be a difficult thing to do, but it’s something that can be achieved by thinking of the character as a whole person, a person who existed before the story, during the story, and will continue to exist after the story. That’s how I think of my characters, and that helps me formulate them into what I hope are fully developed.
I wanted Gunn to be steady, but sort of wild too—in an under-the-surface kind of way. I wanted him to hold his own against Jag Barque, so that was something I worked toward as I developed Gunn.
I think character development can be a difficult thing to do, but it’s something that can be achieved by thinking of the character as a whole person, a person who existed before the story, during the story, and will continue to exist after the story. That’s how I think of my characters, and that helps me formulate them into what I hope are fully developed.
3.
That's great advice about thinking about your character's past and future, because you're right they do have it. What
were some of the challenges in plotting the second book of this series and when
did you plot it out in relation to POSSESSION? Do you have any tips on writing a
series?
Oh,
I don’t plot. I just sit down and write—usually. I will say that my agent
wanted an outline for SURRENDER, so I wrote one for her. It took me 3 months to
write a 20-page outline. It was the single hardest thing I’ve done in my
writing career.
Then I wrote the book in 25 days. (I learned a lot of valuable lessons during this time, so I don’t regret it, but I don’t outline anymore either!)
I outlined/wrote SURRENDER in the fall of 2010, about 8 months before POSSESSION came out. I was able to adjust the ending of POSSESSION slightly to mesh with what I had planned in SURRENDER, so that was nice.
Tips for writing a series: Uh, well, I didn’t know POSSESSION was going to turn into a series, and I just said I don’t outline. I think having SURRENDER be almost a brand new book helped a lot. My best tip for writing, which can be applied to writing a series, is to keep writing. Try lots of different things—I probably wrote 30,000 words with 6 different characters as I was trying to figure out whose story needed to be told in SURRENDER.
Then I wrote the book in 25 days. (I learned a lot of valuable lessons during this time, so I don’t regret it, but I don’t outline anymore either!)
I outlined/wrote SURRENDER in the fall of 2010, about 8 months before POSSESSION came out. I was able to adjust the ending of POSSESSION slightly to mesh with what I had planned in SURRENDER, so that was nice.
Tips for writing a series: Uh, well, I didn’t know POSSESSION was going to turn into a series, and I just said I don’t outline. I think having SURRENDER be almost a brand new book helped a lot. My best tip for writing, which can be applied to writing a series, is to keep writing. Try lots of different things—I probably wrote 30,000 words with 6 different characters as I was trying to figure out whose story needed to be told in SURRENDER.
4.
I think one great piece of advice you've given is to write the second book before the first book comes out. That way you can change things in book 1 before it's set in stone. We
get a whole new sense of the world you’ve created because Raine and Gunner live
in the city of Freedom like all the other citizens. Was this world developed in
your head when you wrote POSSESSION or did it come as you wrote SURRENDER?
It definitely came as I wrote
SURRENDER. I really like that the lens is widened in this second book, even
beyond the city of Freedom.
5.
I have to admit that one of the things that drew me in was the new setting from the totally different perspective of citizens who functioned there. Let’s
talk about marketing. When you debuted last year, you were all over the
Internet. This time it seems like you’re taking a slightly different approach.
Please share your marketing plan this time and why you decided on it for your second
book.
Dude, this year I wasn’t going to
do anything. But things changed in February, and I decided I better get some
stuff done. This time, I decided to do a three-week pre-release tour with only
YA book bloggers. All other promotion is going to be done POST-release, AFTER
the book comes out, when people can actually BUY it. This is different from
POSSESSION, when everything seemed to be focused on building buzz for the book
BEFORE it came out.
6.
I'd be a little scared if you had to do the same amount of work for the release of book 2. Because you worked so hard when book 1 came out. I don't think I could do as much as you did. Having
gone through your debut, what advice do you have for the rest of us on
marketing our debut book? Just thinking about it, I get more than kind of
overwhelmed.
I do think that for a debut,
generating buzz is the best way to go. People haven’t read your work before, so
you need to get them excited. I think the most important thing to remember in
marketing a debut is to remember that you can only do so much. I think
establishing an Internet presence and building authentic relationships before
the book comes out helps a lot. Of course, there are people who do nothing and
become bestsellers—but I believe most of that comes from the publishing house.
For the average author like me, building and maintaining your friendships
online can go a long way.
7. That's such great advice. One
of the things I admire most about you is that you have a full-time job as a
teacher and a successful writing career. I have to do both too. How do you
juggle it all and get in enough writing time to produce a book in a year like
you’ve done?
Okay, well, I only teach part-time.
I’m sure that diminishes your view of me. I think there has to be a sacrifice
if you have a life outside of writing—and everyone should have a life outside
of writing. For me, I sacrifice sleep so I can write. I sacrifice an hour or two
in the evening to go to the library to write. Other than that, I drive my kids
around and I make dinner and I watch movies with my family.
It also helps that I don’t work for June, July, and most of August, and get every major holiday off, 5 days in October for fall break, and an entire week in April for spring break. If there’s a job to have as a mother/writer, it’s a teacher.
It also helps that I don’t work for June, July, and most of August, and get every major holiday off, 5 days in October for fall break, and an entire week in April for spring break. If there’s a job to have as a mother/writer, it’s a teacher.
8. I so agree about the sacrifices. I sacrifice most nights to work on my blog or reading blogs and other times to write. And no, I don't think less of you. But can you find me a job like that when my company closes in 2 years and I need to find a new job? What
are you working on now?
SO MANY THINGS. I hope to be able
to share more of my writing after the POSSESSION series. Of course, I’m
perfecting the third book in the series. I have a science fiction thriller that
involves time travel (it’s kicking my butt). I have a contemporary verse novel
that I love. A fantasy that has a character I love writing. And a futuristic
fantasy about a girl who can control fire. They’re all in various stages of
completion, and they all take a certain mindset to work on.
Wow! You're writing in a lot of genres. Can't wait to hear more news and I'm really excited to hear about your fantasy. That's my favorite genre.
Thanks Elana for sharing all your great advice. You can find Elana at her blog, website, and Twitter.
Before I get to our contest, I want to shout out about Elana's awesome NEVER SURRENDER BLOGFEST. It's happening all next week. All you have to do is post about a time you didn't surrender to some hard thing in your life. If you don't blog, Elana's got a way for you to post to Facebook or Pinterest. And if you participate, you can enter her contest for 3 $15 B&N gift cards and will get a SURRENDER swag package
Have you signed up yet? I have! I'm busy next week so I'll have to wait till Friday to post my story. But I'm super excited to participate. And I hope many of you will participate too. Elana has given so much to us all--organizing WriteOnCon, giving query critiques and advice, and being a good friend.
I'd love to see her have a big Blogfest with LOTS of participants all week. So if you sign up for her Blogfest (that means post a Blogfest post that week), I'll give you 5 extra entries in my contest. And if you shout out about the Blogfest on your blog or Facebook, I'll give you 2 more extra entries for that too. Go here to sign up.
So now onto the contest. Elana's publisher generously offered an ARC for a giveaway. And thanks to Elana for helping me get the ARC. I am only allowed to give it away because I pre-ordered a copy of Elana's book for my daughter. And I just won an e-book of REGRET. Since I already have it, one lucky winner will win that too.
If you mention that you've signed up for Elana's NEVER SURRENDER BLOGFEST, I'll give you 5 extra entries. If you mention the BLOGFEST on your blog or Facebook, I'll give you two extra entries.
On WednesdayI'm interviewing Elle Strauss and giving away a copy of her YA time travel book LIKE CLOCKWORK.
Then on Monday, I'm interviewing debut author Jennifer Bosworth and giving away an ARC of STRUCK, another awesome dystopian book.
Next Wednesday I'm participating in an Indie Book Giveaway Hop. I have an awesome giveaway planned.
And Friday I'll be posting my NEVER SURRENDER BLOGFEST post. I'll be sharing a very personal story so I hope you'll stop by.
And don't forget our Tuesday Tips and Casey's Agent Spotlights on Thursdays.
Hope to see you Wednesday!
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