awesome giveaway!

Head on over to Constantly Risking Absurdity and enter Mariah's contest...for a signed copy of Will Grayson, Will Grayson! Of course, I don't know why I'm sending anyone over there...I'm gonna win it!

But, give it a valiant try!

It's a miracle!...A MIRACLE!!!

That's right, folks.  Miracles do happen...and Kiersten White's news today is proof of that. Her highly anticipated novel, Paranormalcy, is coming out in August! 


Originally slated for a September release, the Gods have decided to be good to us mere mortals and allow us to pack the bookstores earlier than we expected. 


So mark your calendars, all. August 31st is when "the world will be a little less normal".

what's in a name, anyway?

So I’m a reader. We all are, right? We love the written word, love to have piles of books taking up space in our homes (just me? Oh.), and we love getting lost inside a well-written story. We as writers also tend to flash-grab everything written within our respective genres so we can be well-versed on who’s out there and what’s already been done.

But sometimes we don’t find everything. And it’s bad when we miss something really good. And it’s really bad when we miss something really good that is eerily similar to something you’ve been slaving over for months – or longer.

Well, that’s the state of being in my life right now. Sorta.

I must admit that during my in-depth reading of all things Paranormal YA, I have sadly missed out on The Immortals series by Allyson Noel. I only found out yesterday – via a surprising email from a beta reader – that this series even existed. I know, I’m shameful.

But that isn’t the only utterly depressing thing about this story. Oh no, it gets worse. You see, Noel’s main character in this series, Ever, has the same name as my main character.

Did you hear me? I’ve stolen someone’s name! Oh, the horror!

So now I’m really in a pickle. I have just completed the first draft of my YA paranormal and my main character has the same name as a successful series already on the shelves.

So I ask you, faithful members of the blogosphere…what do I do? Do I keep going forward with my mc, or do I change her name to something no one has used yet? Or do I leave it as is and if by some miracle I’m accepted for publication one day we can worry about it then?

i need more time!

I just realized that it's been over a week since my last post. Not that I have a rigid posting schedule or anything, but I do like to put something up a bit more frequently. So my apologies.

Now, on to the problem at hand.

I’m waist deep in my current WIP, already sending off chapters to my wonderful co-worker/”Alpha” reader (she prefers that term, since she’s the only person seeing my work right now), and naturally getting some feedback. And though it’s really positive, there’s one part that she questioned, and frankly I have, too. So I’m turning to the trusty blogosphere to try and find some solutions.

Here’s my question: How do I make time go by in my WIP? As it stands, everything that has happened to my characters thus far appears to be happening within a single week. I write organically (i.e. I’m a pantser), so whatever comes up in the story I put it on paper. This probably doesn’t help much with the time issue.

Any thoughts? How do you go about creating a sense of time passed in your writing? And also, does it seem unbelievable to have several dramatic, overwhelming things happen day after day after day? Help!

to die, or not to die...that is my question

Being writers of the Young Adult persuasion, we all know how delicate our readers can be. We understand that the subject matter of our stories needs to be both entertaining and enlightening, that a message of morality or humanity hidden within our words is a unique way to get through to teens.

But what if we want to change things up a bit?

I don’t mean writing a story where all of humankind is evil and the hero doesn’t win. Well, I sort of mean that. Let me explain.

I’m about knee deep in my current WIP, slowly but steadily working my way up to the waist. I’ve introduced my characters in what I believe to be a good way. I’ve brought in a small but important supporting cast and I think I’ve laid the proper groundwork for my story to fully play itself out. Over the course of 3 (hopefully a published trilogy!) books, I plan on taking my main character from young and innocent to young and matured. That’s the plan.

But I’m running into a question that I was hoping to find an answer for. Or at the very least, a few opinions from the geniuses that make up Writerdom. So, once again I’m posing a question. Feel free to answer, not answer, tell me to quit wasting my time ‘cause my writing is horrible (wait, that’s me telling myself that!), whatever. Here goes…

Is it wrong to kill off the main character once the story has been told?

I know this question may come as a shock to some, but I honestly feel that in the course of my story, sacrificing herself to save others would be the only choice my MC would make. But at the same time, I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot.

Would you stick to your guns and kill your MC? Or would you choose a safer, though altered version of your story where the MC lives happily (or not so happily) ever after?

SUPER awesome giveaway!

Okay folks, head on over to Y(A)? Cuz We Write! and enter their really stupendous contest! And peruse their great blog while you're there!

are you hungry?

If that hunger is for an awesome giveaway, then look no further! Go forth and enter to win an ARC of Hunger over at La Femme Readers...and good luck!

silver linings...

So this weekend proved eventful for me in more ways than one.

First, it was a holiday weekend (yay!) so the extra day off from work was awesome.

Second, I got some great writing done (both actual writing of the story and a nice synopsis!) thanks to a friend going to the emergency room for over 4 hours. I know, it sounds horrible, but luckily he was just fine. As I was sitting in the ER waiting area (did I mention it was over 4 HOURS!), the ideas just started coming. I had to jump up, run out to my car, and snag my trusty notebook and pen. I didn't even think to carry them in with me during all the hooplah. Anyway, I started writing and writing and writing, and the more I wrote, the more the ideas flowed. It was great!

Now, don't let my ramblings fool you. It's not like I managed to squeeze out 200 pages or something during my hospital ER hard-as-a-rock chair stay. No, unfortunately. But I did manage to finish the hard-as-heck chapter I had been slaving over for several days. And I zipped through a synopsis like it was nobody's business. All in all, an excellent writing weekend!

Which poses the question: Where do you guys find inspiration? Where do you find those few precious extra minutes (or hours...4 of them!) to throw pen to paper and improve on your masterpiece?