To Feed My Reading Addiction...

Maggie Stiefvater (uber fabulous writer of Shiver, Linger, Forever) has an awesome blog and an awesome book giveaway going on!! Go check out her blog and facebook page... She's always updating it with cool insight to her crazy writer life :) Enter the giveaway! *I hope I can snag a few books myself* ;)

Word count

2,000 words done today. Wahoo! Its 2:30am. The MS is weighin' in at about 44,500ish words right now. I can't wait till it has a solid beginning, middle, and end. It does already, but I mean that actually flows and make sense 8-) Then I can rip it apart and make it better. Yeah baby. I'm getting ready for red markers and too much chocolate. LOL. Oh, btw! I got a runner's up prize from Aprilynne Pike's blog! I'm getting goodies. YUM!

Playing Around: Rough Book Covers for my Novel...

See what happens when you have writer's block? You play with pictures... =) If I ever get published, I won't really have any say with cover art so I figured I could play with it now...









The first one is actually from Fernanda Brussi's portfolio (the cover artist for Lauren Kate's Fallen). Now, when I get published I hope I have a dazzling cover artist that will do 100x better than these... but after seeing quite a few books with mediocre covers, I wonder if many authors are disappointed with their cover art when they see it. Hmmm. Wouldn't that suck? You pour your heart into a book and then have no say how it looks in the end? Oh well. I guess that is how it works. It's fun to hear when publishers let authors actually be involved in the creative design process... Know some amazing cover artists? Know of a fun cover art/author story?

Err, ADD much?

WHAT I'M READING:
THE REPLACEMENT BY BRENNA YOVANOFF

UGLIES BY SCOTT WESTERFIELD

&

UNWIND BY NEAL SHUSTERMAN

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO:

RON POPE - A DROP IN THE OCEAN
PINK - F*ING PERFECT
KILLERS - MR BRIGHTSIDE (ACOUSTIC)

WHAT I SHOULD BE DOING:

WRITING!!!!

Ever get ADD? What pulls you away from your writing? What *distractions* actually help you write? Have a writing playlist?

Want to feed my ADD? What are you reading? =) What are you listening to?

Favorite Book Cover?

Alrighty, ladies and gents... what is YOUR favorite book cover? I am convinced that we do judge a book by it's cover and if it sucks, errr... not buying it (unless I know it is going to be awesome :)

I have a few I l-o-v-e. Some that come to mind are:

What are your favorite book covers?

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HERE IT COMES!!! ILLUSIONS!!!!

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE--Trailer, Author Interview, Query Letter!!

Sound awesome right? I haven't read it yet. Actually, I read the author interview and query letter before even realizing that this was the book that she was talking about!! I think it's awesome when writers are so open about their writing journeys... I think they realize that aspiring novelists want all the juicy details, a tiny shred of hope to hold onto as they get their 100th rejection letter or shelve their last book. Persevere!  Keep writing!

Check out the query letter:


"Seventeen-year-old Amy has no desire to become one of the first colonists on a new planet--but her parents do. So she agrees to be cryogenically frozen for the journey, even if it means giving up the life she loves on Earth.


Much later, Elder--part of the generations of workers born on the ship--begins his training as the future commander. He has no idea of the cargo of cryogenically frozen people hidden beneath his feet.
Then Amy wakes up fifty years early.


Amy must now adjust to life without her still-frozen parents on board a space ship that is vastly different from her home on Earth. Trapped by both the metal walls of the ship and the lies that keep it running, Amy discovers her cryo chamber hadn't malfunctioned--someone had tried to kill her. As more and more helplessly frozen victims are unplugged, Amy combines her knowledge of the past with Elder's knowledge of the ship to find and stop the murderer...before Amy's parents are the next victims.


Complete at 80,000 words, LONG WAY HOME is science fiction for teens who don't like science fiction. The character-driven plot with a focus on mystery, secrets, and an unreliable narrator will appeal to fans of Mary Pearson's THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX, and the contained mystery may attract older readers of Jeanne du Prau's CITY OF EMBER.


I am currently a high school world literature teacher and an active member of SCBWI, having been published in and working as the copy editor of the state SCBWI magazine. Additionally, I run a blog on writing for MG and YA audiences (bethrevis.blogspot.com) which has over 300 subscribers and an active community of authors and readers who share in blog tours, book reviews, and author interviews. I can be found online atbethrevis.com or [email].


I am prepared to submit the entire manuscript upon your request. Thank you for your time and consideration with this project. Below are the first five pages as a sample of my writing.
Sincerely,
Beth Revis"


Cool, yes? Have you come across some AWESOME query letters? Or a query letter from a successful writer? Read the interview with Beth Revis here.


Here is a video of the Revis talking about ACROSS THE UNIVERSE.

"Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories"

I'm on a linking up marathon! I just wrote my first short story. In short, it sucks. But hey, that's what editing is for! Check out the tips below.


"...I wouldn't claim to be an expert on short fiction writing, but I have written over a hundred of the little fuckers, a large proportion of which have been science fiction-y. Here are a bunch of do's and don'ts, that I discovered the hardest way possible.

World-building should be quick and merciless. In a novel, you can spend ten pages explaining how the 29th Galactic Congress established a Peacekeeping Force to regulate the use of interstitial jumpgates, and this Peacekeeping Force evolved over the course of a century to include A.I.s in its command structure, etc. etc. In a short story, you really need to hang your scenery as fast as possible. My friend and mentor d.g.k. goldberg always cited the Heinlein line: "The door dilated," which tells you a lot about the surroundings in three words. Little oblique references to stuff your characters take for granted can go a long way."

READ MORE

"A Crisis of Self-Confidence"

I sooo needed to read this...


"Here’s a rather entertaining question that Jeff asked back in November, but one the deals with an all-too-common evergreen creative ailment:

Recently I was infected with what I call “the demon of self-doubt” and I couldn’t work on my WIP for a month. A snarky comment in my crit group triggered an intense period of insecurity for me, and destructive thoughts like “I’m just not a good enough writer” and “my voice is too bland” kept buzzing around my brain. These thoughts kept looping back and getting stronger, like a bad song you can’t get out of you head (for example, “skyrockets in flight, whoosh, afternoon delight”).

I wrote in my journal, and I started some new material, but every time I went back to my WIP, I threw my hands up in air and wailed, “I’m not worthy!” I wouldn’t call this a writer’s block; it was instead a crisis of confidence." READ MORE

Ever been in a writing rut? Feeling low? What did you do to get out of it?

Book promotion...

So I came across this blog post and wanted to share. Now, I of course have zero books to promote, BUT why not be well-informed, eh? So that *when* I'm published, I can avoid that "roar of silence."


"TIPS TO SURVIVING BOOK PROMOTION
(How to have fun storycatching too!!!)
by Kerry Madden 

"Usually, a new book comes out like cat paws...then it just goes away." This is what Judith Freeman, who wrote, THE LONG EMBRACE: RAYMOND CHANDLER AND THE WOMAN HE LOVED, told me when I attended her reading and signing at Vroman's in Pasadena several years ago - a very apt description. Cat paws. The roar of silence." READ MORE

BREATHLESS BOOK TOUR!!

Err, awesome much?

Check out the book giveaway and book tour date/places at Ally Condie's website.

http://www.allysoncondie.com/

Lauren Kate's New FB Page :)

Lauren Kate's FB page

Books I Can't wait to read in 2011

Illusions!

City of Fallen Angels!!! By Cassandra Clare*****
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
The Sequel to Matched by Ally Condie
Passion by Lauren Kate
Hmm, there are more... but I'm at a loss. What should I be looking forward to?

Unpublished author with interesting idea!

Okay, so to me... this book trailer is hot stuff. Doesn't it feel like an ACTUAL movie trailer?! So get this... the author of this unpublished book is conducting an experiment... a digital marketing one. He wrote a book. Made a trailer. A facebook page. A website. And is now in search of an agent. Now this might seem a little backwards, but after surfing the web, I find that more and more unpublished writers are doing the same. They want their precious literary baby out in the world and are willing to put the sweat and tears into doing it. The world of publishing is changing and writers are getting down and dirty. I think its awesome... but I know there are many people that prefer traditional publishing, with traditional roles. What do you think the pros and cons are? Have you seen some unpublished writers' websites/blogs/trailers that actually make you a fan and make you WANT the book to be published so that you can have it in your hands? Tell me all about it!!

Check out this guy's website!
http://www.deathwaterthebook.com/

My reading love affair

So, I hadn't been reading in ages... I missed it, longed for it, craved it. So finally, I started reading again. Why the delay? Lame excuses, of course. No time... baby eats the pages... need to do more productive things. Blah, blah, blah. So I started reading while water was boiling, while my hubby watched T.V., when I took a bath... dozens of stolen, unused moments turned into fabulous moments to escape the mundane and R-E-A-D. In the past couple of weeks I have read Torment by Lauren Kate and Matched by Ally Condie (ehem, the chick that got seven figures for her YA trilogy). Great books. I actually liked Torment better than Fallen. Per suggestion, now I am onto The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Loving life. Feel free to post suggestions.