You know the old adage, you can't judge a book by it's cover? That may have been true in 1806, but nowadays, I respectfully submit it's false. You can totally judge a book by it's cover. That's why I've been so stressed about creating a professional intriguing cover for THE GIFTED.
Good news! My sister-in-law has agreed to create a book cover for me! We spent a very, very long time pouring over stock photos. When we found "the one," she dazzled me with just a few clicks of her mouse.
It's going to look amazing.
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Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
What am I thinking?!
Here's something you may not know. Most of my books come from a dream. I will wake up one morning with a scene burning in my brain. It is, then, my job to create the rest of the story.
This morning, I woke up with a scene burning in my brain. I had to sit down and write it out. Before I got too far along I thought, "What am I thinking?!" I just finished writing/editing/submitting a book. Now I'm in the process of editing another and prepping it for publication on http://www.createspace.com/. Do I have time to write another one?! Do I have time to do the research, character building, world building, plot outlining, etc?
No.
So what am I going to do?
Write out the scene I dreamt, jot down some other ideas, and then leave it be.
This is kind of hard because it's going to be a good one. Maybe a sci-fi kind of thriller. I dunno. We'll see. I don't even have names yet. In fact, wherever a name should be mentioned, I did this: ______ or ______'s.
Someday I'll have time for you, Little Awesomeness.
Now the trial is going to be seeing how long I can leave it alone. :) Pin It
This morning, I woke up with a scene burning in my brain. I had to sit down and write it out. Before I got too far along I thought, "What am I thinking?!" I just finished writing/editing/submitting a book. Now I'm in the process of editing another and prepping it for publication on http://www.createspace.com/. Do I have time to write another one?! Do I have time to do the research, character building, world building, plot outlining, etc?
No.
So what am I going to do?
Write out the scene I dreamt, jot down some other ideas, and then leave it be.
This is kind of hard because it's going to be a good one. Maybe a sci-fi kind of thriller. I dunno. We'll see. I don't even have names yet. In fact, wherever a name should be mentioned, I did this: ______ or ______'s.
Someday I'll have time for you, Little Awesomeness.
Now the trial is going to be seeing how long I can leave it alone. :) Pin It
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Teaser Tuesday -2-
Teaser Tuesday: Reading a book? Open it to a random page and include 2 passages from that page. Be careful not to include spoilers. Share the book name and author so that readers know what it is they're enjoying.
Yesterday I finished re-reading My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison (who is a mastermind at YA novels. And she's seriously funny. Seriously.).
1. "You're higness, I'm sure you'll meet many women tonight. And besides, you can't trust anything a fairy tells you. They're constantly getting things wrong."
2. Now it seemed silly on his lips and altogether insulting. I didn't want somoene who had to force himself to overlook my personality.
Page 257 (I use random.org)
I love this book. I cannot wait for the sequel to come out in April: My Unfair Godmother. Pin It
Yesterday I finished re-reading My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison (who is a mastermind at YA novels. And she's seriously funny. Seriously.).
1. "You're higness, I'm sure you'll meet many women tonight. And besides, you can't trust anything a fairy tells you. They're constantly getting things wrong."
2. Now it seemed silly on his lips and altogether insulting. I didn't want somoene who had to force himself to overlook my personality.
Page 257 (I use random.org)
I love this book. I cannot wait for the sequel to come out in April: My Unfair Godmother. Pin It
Saturday, January 22, 2011
And now back to my regularly scheduled life. Please.
Here's something you should know about me. I am the Procrastinator. Not a procrastinator. The Procrastinator. I am the queen of waiting until the last minute, selectively remembering a task, or finding something completely unimportant to do instead of my very important thing I should be doing.
I need a deadline. Give me a date and time. I'll be there. Give me a, "Whenever you get around to it," and I'll never get around to it.
Even though I need a deadline, what that really means is I'll put it off until the last possible second, pull an all-nighter to get it done, and then wipe my brow with self-satisfaction. Disaster averted.
I've known for months that I am going to enter my book into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Months. I wrote this novel in November for goodness sake, and I've known since then that this puppy was going to be entered into the contest.
My dad and aunt are also writers, so we edit each other's manuscripts. I have had almost three weeks to review and edit my manuscript with the critiques from my editors.
Three weeks.
The contest opens tomorrow night at midnight. Yesterday morning I woke up with over 40 pages left to edit. Ouch. That doesn't sound like a lot, but considering it took me 3 weeks to edit 120 pages, that number felt like Mt. Everest.
Editing is not the same as reading. It's basically like taking what you wrote, pressing delete, and starting over with someone else's suggestions (as a reader) ringing in your ears.
Ok, it's not that bad, but you do end up deleting a lot and writing a LOT. In the course of my edits, I wrote an additional 13 pages of story, equaling almost 5,000 words. To sit down and write 13 pages is not hard for me. But to spread that over 165 pages (meaning a sentence here, a paragraph there, an explanation squeezed in...), that was hard. Really hard. Not to mention time consuming. (My computer chair has permanent hiney indentations I think.)
So, what does the Procrastinator do when she realizes she has a deadline looming? She makes crafts. What else? She watches a movie. She reads another book. She spends the day with her sister-in-law. And then she waits until her family goes to sleep and then sits down in front of the computer to edit until the wee hours of the morning. Either that or until she goes cross-eyed (which usually happens around 12:30).
Oh yeah, and there's the "other" stuff. You know, being a wife and mother. I still have laundry, dishes, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming to do. Library books still need picked up and dropped off, groceries need bought. Seth still needs fed, bathed, clothed, loved, read to. He still has doctor's appointments to go to and puzzles to do with mommy. Tyler, while arguably more self-sufficient, still needs listened to and occasionally fed. He needs attention and to know his wife hasn't disappeared. She hasn't been sucked into the black hole of the computer monitor.
This morning after editing for a few hours, I heard, "You want to go play in the snow? Maybe mom will come too."
That's code for: We are going outside and you are coming with us.
This evening I was so close to finishing I could taste it. I had 3 pages left, and I put it down to eat dinner or something. I don't even remember what it was. Tyler was acting a little like a grizzly bear with a thorn in it's paw. I asked him why he was upset and he said something like, "I thought I'd been pretty good about letting you finish your book. I haven't even complained!"
It's true. He's been so good about hiding in his bedroom to watch CSI reruns or playing Angry Birds on his phone so that I have time to edit. He's been a jem.
When he made that comment tonight, what he was really saying was, "I want my wife back!"
Aw. Thanks honey. You'll be happy to know I finished and plan to enter that puppy in the contest tomorrow night. Maybe this week I'll get to bed before 1am. Who knows. A girl can always dream.
Pin It
I need a deadline. Give me a date and time. I'll be there. Give me a, "Whenever you get around to it," and I'll never get around to it.
Even though I need a deadline, what that really means is I'll put it off until the last possible second, pull an all-nighter to get it done, and then wipe my brow with self-satisfaction. Disaster averted.
I've known for months that I am going to enter my book into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Months. I wrote this novel in November for goodness sake, and I've known since then that this puppy was going to be entered into the contest.
My dad and aunt are also writers, so we edit each other's manuscripts. I have had almost three weeks to review and edit my manuscript with the critiques from my editors.
Three weeks.
The contest opens tomorrow night at midnight. Yesterday morning I woke up with over 40 pages left to edit. Ouch. That doesn't sound like a lot, but considering it took me 3 weeks to edit 120 pages, that number felt like Mt. Everest.
Editing is not the same as reading. It's basically like taking what you wrote, pressing delete, and starting over with someone else's suggestions (as a reader) ringing in your ears.
Ok, it's not that bad, but you do end up deleting a lot and writing a LOT. In the course of my edits, I wrote an additional 13 pages of story, equaling almost 5,000 words. To sit down and write 13 pages is not hard for me. But to spread that over 165 pages (meaning a sentence here, a paragraph there, an explanation squeezed in...), that was hard. Really hard. Not to mention time consuming. (My computer chair has permanent hiney indentations I think.)
So, what does the Procrastinator do when she realizes she has a deadline looming? She makes crafts. What else? She watches a movie. She reads another book. She spends the day with her sister-in-law. And then she waits until her family goes to sleep and then sits down in front of the computer to edit until the wee hours of the morning. Either that or until she goes cross-eyed (which usually happens around 12:30).
Oh yeah, and there's the "other" stuff. You know, being a wife and mother. I still have laundry, dishes, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming to do. Library books still need picked up and dropped off, groceries need bought. Seth still needs fed, bathed, clothed, loved, read to. He still has doctor's appointments to go to and puzzles to do with mommy. Tyler, while arguably more self-sufficient, still needs listened to and occasionally fed. He needs attention and to know his wife hasn't disappeared. She hasn't been sucked into the black hole of the computer monitor.
This morning after editing for a few hours, I heard, "You want to go play in the snow? Maybe mom will come too."
That's code for: We are going outside and you are coming with us.
This evening I was so close to finishing I could taste it. I had 3 pages left, and I put it down to eat dinner or something. I don't even remember what it was. Tyler was acting a little like a grizzly bear with a thorn in it's paw. I asked him why he was upset and he said something like, "I thought I'd been pretty good about letting you finish your book. I haven't even complained!"
It's true. He's been so good about hiding in his bedroom to watch CSI reruns or playing Angry Birds on his phone so that I have time to edit. He's been a jem.
When he made that comment tonight, what he was really saying was, "I want my wife back!"
Aw. Thanks honey. You'll be happy to know I finished and plan to enter that puppy in the contest tomorrow night. Maybe this week I'll get to bed before 1am. Who knows. A girl can always dream.
Pin It
Monday, January 17, 2011
Review: The World Above by Cameron Dokey
The World above is the retelling of the widely known tale, Jack and the Beanstalk. But what you didn't know is that Jack has a sister, Gen, and she is the real hero of the story.
Jack and Gen are twins. They are raised by their mother who tells them stories of the mythical place she came from, The World Above. She was exiled as a young woman and has no way to get home. When an old woman gives Jack magic beans, everyone sees them for what they are: a way to return to the World Above. It's also proof that Mother's stories were more than just stories. Jack, eager for adventure, climbs the beanstalk to find a way to return his family to what is rightfully theirs. When time goes by and Jack doesn't return, Gen knows it's up to her to save her brother.
But wait, there's more. Along the way, Gen meets, Robin, a prince who lives in the forest, steals from the rich and gives to the poor. That's right, Robin Hood meets Jack in the Beanstalk.
I must say at first I was a little irritated, but soon I was delighted. The stories mesh seamlessly, and no mention of "Robin Hood," "Merry Men," or "Little John," is anywhere in the book. For some reason, that satisfied me. Dokey's writing is, as always, smooth and flowing. She masterfully creates a vision with only a few sentences. Gen is a serious young woman who points out her own flaws and does not apologize for them. The characters are interesting, the story is short and sweet. Nicely done.
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Jack and Gen are twins. They are raised by their mother who tells them stories of the mythical place she came from, The World Above. She was exiled as a young woman and has no way to get home. When an old woman gives Jack magic beans, everyone sees them for what they are: a way to return to the World Above. It's also proof that Mother's stories were more than just stories. Jack, eager for adventure, climbs the beanstalk to find a way to return his family to what is rightfully theirs. When time goes by and Jack doesn't return, Gen knows it's up to her to save her brother.
But wait, there's more. Along the way, Gen meets, Robin, a prince who lives in the forest, steals from the rich and gives to the poor. That's right, Robin Hood meets Jack in the Beanstalk.
I must say at first I was a little irritated, but soon I was delighted. The stories mesh seamlessly, and no mention of "Robin Hood," "Merry Men," or "Little John," is anywhere in the book. For some reason, that satisfied me. Dokey's writing is, as always, smooth and flowing. She masterfully creates a vision with only a few sentences. Gen is a serious young woman who points out her own flaws and does not apologize for them. The characters are interesting, the story is short and sweet. Nicely done.
Pin It
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Teaser Tuesday -1-
Teaser Tuesday: Pick up the book you are reading. Flip to a random page. Share two - spoiler free! - sentences (teasers) from that page. Be sure to include the author and book names so intrigued readers will know what to check out.
So, I've seen the concept of TT before, but I've never done it. For some reason, today I'm feeling sassy. I wanted to participate, but since I'm not really "reading" anything, just editing, I guess that means you get to see quotes from my work.
Huzzah!
Here we go...
THE GIFTED by Deborah Andreasen
1. “You want answers? Guess what, so do I.” I cross my arms and sit back in my chair, feeling rather sassy.
2. I look up and meet Kael’s anxious gaze. It surprises me that he is so excited to hear the terrible tale of my death.
It probably would have been better if it came from a real live published author...but like I said. I'm not reading anything right now but my own work. So you're stuck with Teasers from me. And you might notice that I said I was feeling sassy, and then so did my main character. That was NOT intentional. I guess we're just more alike than I thought. :)
Want to play along? I'd love it if you did. That way I'd know what good books to read. Pin It
So, I've seen the concept of TT before, but I've never done it. For some reason, today I'm feeling sassy. I wanted to participate, but since I'm not really "reading" anything, just editing, I guess that means you get to see quotes from my work.
Huzzah!
Here we go...
THE GIFTED by Deborah Andreasen
1. “You want answers? Guess what, so do I.” I cross my arms and sit back in my chair, feeling rather sassy.
2. I look up and meet Kael’s anxious gaze. It surprises me that he is so excited to hear the terrible tale of my death.
It probably would have been better if it came from a real live published author...but like I said. I'm not reading anything right now but my own work. So you're stuck with Teasers from me. And you might notice that I said I was feeling sassy, and then so did my main character. That was NOT intentional. I guess we're just more alike than I thought. :)
Want to play along? I'd love it if you did. That way I'd know what good books to read. Pin It
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