Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris

Manga Monday! #8 - Daa! Daa! Daa!

2011-10-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Title: Daa! Daa! Daa!
Author: Kawamura Mika
Available: Online ONLY! (That is--look it up!)
Price: N/A - Not available in the U.S.
Books in series: 9

Description (via Wikipedia, because it's more detailed!):
Miyu Kouzuki is an 8th-grade student whose parents leave for the United States to work for NASA and arrange for her to stay with their long-time family friend, Hōsho Saionji (a monk who lives in an old temple atop a hill). However, the monk leaves soon after for India on a year-long voyage, leaving Miyu to stay in the same house with his son, Kanata.

Suddenly a UFO lands – transporting an alien baby, Ruu, and his cat-like "sitter pet", Wannya. They arrive after being separated from their home planet, Otto, when it falls into an interplanetary worm hole (a time warp which can transport objects across several regions, planets and time planes). They cannot return to their home planet because it is too difficult to reach; Wannyā asks Kanata and Miyu to allow them to stay in their house, and they agree. Miyu and Kanata learn from Wannyā that people from Planet Otto look identical to human beings, and that Wannyā can also transform into human beings, animals and objects.

Miyu and Kanata feel deep love for Baby Ruu, who also cares for them – thinking of them as his parents due to their similar looks – and they go to great lengths to help and protect him and Wannya. As the story progresses the group are often involved in comedic and funny situations, but their sense of family deepens. The story ends with a rescue team from outer space coming to Earth and returning Ruu and Wannyā to Otto safely. Miyu goes to boarding school alone. However, years later Miyu and Kanata reunite, marry and have a daughter named Miu; they also reunite with Wannya and Ruu.

Why you want this manga:
I have been hesitant to post about this series because it's not available in the U.S., so you can only read it online through manga sites. But it's such a good series that I just had to share it. The relationship between the two "parents" is so heartwarming and adorable you can't help but cheer for them. They're just kids, but they make some of the best parents I've ever seen. I only hope when I'm a parent I remember some of the lessons I learned reading these books! (Of course, I also hope my baby isn't an alien, but that's not the point.)

The romance between the two "parents" is subtle, but builds sweetly and naturally, out of their love of the baby they somehow end up caring for, and the circumstances that force them together. It's an adorable, easy, fun read, and if you're looking for a lighthearted romance and you don't mind sitting at the computer for a few hours, this is just what you need. I highly recommend this manga! (And hey, you can't beat the price--it's free! Though when it comes to the U.S., buy it! It's that good.)

The Best Part About Vacations...

2011-09-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

I love August-September.

It's usually around these months that my husband and I start discussing where we're going to go for our anniversary. The past two years we've gone to the same place (Disneyland!), but this year we've decided to try something new.

We're going to New Orleans!

http://www.bourbonorleans.com/

I went to New Orleans when I was around 16, and I remember loving everything about the city. I love history, and as you read in my last post, I love researching everything about new stories I'm working on.

And what an amazing place to research for a story! New Orleans? Yes, please!

In a city rich with history ranging from real history to all the wonderful ghost stories you could dream of, why wouldn't you want to visit? I am super excited to be going there as an adult, too... I can't wait to finally go on my bayou swamp tour and visit all those wonderful Creole-Cajun cities you can only visit via the water! What delicious story ideas!

http://www.houmashouse.com/ - One of the plantations we'll be visiting.

Acadian Village - Historical Reenactments - http://www.acadianvillage.org/home_page0.aspx

The problem with writing a story, if you've ever tried to write one based in a real city you've never lived in or visited, is that it's next-to-impossible to capture the real "vibe" of the city. You can never fully capture the essence. The details. And you know what they say about the devil and those details... So you will notice it's not something I attempt. There's a reason for it.

Authenticity, my dear friends.

So I am beyond excited to be visiting New Orleans, and getting to really delve into the city. We're going for ten (10!!!) days, and to celebrate, as I do every year, I've purchased a new wardrobe for the trip. (I'm a jeans and t-shirt kinda girl, so when we go on vacation I like to dress up for my husband. It's my way of celebrating our time together.) I'm also stocking up on memory cards for my camera, and you can be sure I'll be taking along an expanding file so I can keep all of our awesome tour maps and brochures. (Not only does it make for wonderful scrapbooking material, it doubles as memory-joggers for storytelling!)

Expanding file I like to use. Available at office supply stores.

Researching: Is It Half the Fun?

2011-09-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

As you read in the last post, I've been working on a new piece lately.

Honestly, I haven't touched it in a couple of weeks, but that's mostly because I've been sick. (And not really the point, either!)

Here's the premise:
Sometimes life can just be too overwhelming. Sometimes the people you trust most betray you in impossible ways. Sometimes, you just need to break free.

When Juliet's CEO-father decides to announce his plans to marry her off to the heir of an oil company at her sweet sixteen birthday party in front of a room full of people she doesn't even know, she decides now is that time.

Living on the run isn't easy, but day-after-day the tiny, elitist corner of the world Juliet has been born and raised in expands before her very eyes. With her fake IDs and stolen trust fund, she moves from small town to small town, living on odd jobs and trying desperately to stay one step ahead of her father's guards--desperate to bring her back and secure the merger with the oil company.

Juliet is determined not to be found. But when her father brings in the one person who would do anything to find her, Juliet isn't so sure she wants to stay lost anymore.

Okay, so it's a rough edit, but you get the idea. Anyway, I started doing a ton of research on small towns in the U.S., searching for different small towns to base Juliet in. And oh my gosh, I literally lost days researching these towns. I found this amazing website: http://www.smalltowngems.com/browsetowns.html, and just kept clicking. I took notes, jotted down some of my favorite cities, and even started looking at the town's websites and doing more in-depth research. Now I even want to visit some of them!

And this isn't the first time I've done something like this. I wrote a story based in space once, and I lost days researching facts about the planets, our solar system, and anything else I could find. Research is amazing, and with the internet right in front of us, it's easy to get lost learning new things.

And it really made me wonder--is research half the fun?

Idea Time!

2011-08-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

I am so, so happy.

After a few months of non-writing, over the last few days I've started to get that itch. That little urge in the back of your mind that kind of taunts and toys with you, and says, "I'm an idea. And I'm forming." It might sound strange, but that's how it happens. It doesn't necessarily have to be an actual idea, it's just motivation to be an idea, if that makes any sense. And it kind of sits back there, building itself up, a tiny little notion prepping itself to be a full-fledged idea.

Well when I was driving home today it struck me. The Idea. I immediately came home and jotted it down in my idea journal (yes, you've read my blog, and you know what that is) and started doing what I am adamantly opposed to--I started outlining.

And I started drafting character outlines.

If you're asking yourself why I started doing this, I'll tell you it's pretty simple. I've struggled a lot with my writing. I write a draft, then go back through and in editing discover I've left out a key scene that changes the entire book and I have to rewrite the whole thing. Multiple times. I love my characters, I do, but I've gotten several reviews/comments talking about how they seem one-dimensional and cliche. Well--I still stand by my characters, but it doesn't mean I shouldn't grow and learn from the comments, right? A comment my editor gave me has stayed with me all this time... It was to the effect of her wanting to know my character's back story, because my main character wasn't the big mystery, and it helped make her more sympathetic.

And that, I think, is a very fair and valid point.

So I wrote a quick little bit on each main character, a quick overview of the story and underlying themes, and then started a chapter-by-chapter outline. I think it's the chapter-by-chapter outline that kills me, to be honest. I need to keep it more vague. If I write chapter-by-chapter outlines, the story has pretty much been told and I'm bored. As I've said a dozen times before, I discover the story just as the reader does. So I think I need a vague outline to make this all work.

I was going to share the premise here, but I think I need to work a little on the pitch before I do. Pitch, of course, being the summary. So until then, sit tight, because I kinda dig this idea!

Until next time, guys, thanks for sticking with me! <3

Scene Sunday #5

2011-07-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't been writing much lately (read: at all), I thought I would take this opportunity to post a new Scene Sunday and get those creative juices flowing!

Scene Sunday Concept: The 5W1H Rule--answer the questions, and create a scene based on it!

inspiring-photos.com

Who: A girl on the open road.
What: Is driving.
Where: In the middle of nowhere.
Why: Because she's trying to escape her life.
When: Late afternoon/early evening.
How did it go: She finds something she wasn't looking for.

Scene:

The air was surprisingly warm, despite the heavy gray storm clouds overhead. Her hair whipped around her face from the rush of wind through the open window, spraying it around her face. She reached up with one hand, pressing it back away from her eyes so she could focus on the road. The engine on the heavy, beat-up truck gunned as she pressed harder on the pedal, trying to outrun the storm.

The radio had long-since given away to static, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She kept her eyes fastened to the pavement in front of her, not wanting to think; not wanting to remember; not wanting to let her mind continuously replay those final moments in her head again and again.

So she drove harder. Faster. The long stretch of road gave no chances to take a turn to fast, but she desperately wished to play her odds. To treat her own life with the contempt and recklessness it had been shown. To abandon everything she'd ever been taught about morality, truth, and family.

Hot tears stung her eyes, a solid lump forming in her throat and nearly choking her. Her lips parted with a gasp to breathe in air, steeling herself against the impending tears. She hadn't cried yet, not once since she had left that horrific scene behind her. She wouldn't cry now. She wouldn't allow herself to think them worthy enough of her tears.

As if it wanted to do the job for her, the skies suddenly split open with a resounding crack of thunder, the rain falling down in sheets and pummeling the aged truck. She quickly reached for the window handle, rolling it up desperately to keep herself from getting wetter. Steam rose off of her newly-drenched arm as she reached for the heater, turning it on her at full blast.

Her visibility reduced to just yards in front of her car, she instinctively slowed, lifting her foot from the gas pedal. She scanned the sides of the open highway for a sign of where she was--where she might stop until the rain eased up a bit--but it was deserted. Just a long road and endless fields.

She slowed the truck more, dropping it down a gear. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen headlights, either coming toward her or behind her. She was completely alone on this isolated stretch of highway. It had been a blind turn, one she had made after countless others, and as the magnitude of her solitude crept in on her, one she was starting to regret.

She glanced at the gas gauge, relieved to see there was still half a tank of gas. She gritted her teeth, leaning over the wheel, keeping her eyes fastened to the road in front of her.

She continued on, driving, the rain streaming down around her and pelting the truck almost violently. Thunder cracked and roared in the skies, as if warning her away. For a moment she considered turning around, and then, blessedly, she saw it. A sign.

New Hope, it read. 5 miles.

She smiled wryly at the city's name. And then she continued her car forward, her destination set.

Radio Silence

2011-07-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much, and I always mention on this blog that I only blog when I'm writing.

So, we can pretty much take from this that I'm not really writing right now.

I will say it's not for lack of trying, though. I started one story, got about 30 pages in, and then gave it up. (I believe I mentioned it a couple of posts ago, about a couple of characters I wanted to try out.) I liked the characters, but the story felt really rushed and the characters lacked conflict because they were so compatible. So the story died right there on the operating table. (We will mourn you, dear story.) Of course, I'm keeping the story, because who knows? In ten years I might just pick it up again. ;)

Some amazing news! The Wrong Path is doing astonishingly well. Better than I ever could have dreamed. I am floored at how many people are giving it a shot. And it even got some phenomenal reviews on Amazon--I was so touched! It just blows my mind every day. I don't know how it happened, I just know I'm incredibly grateful.

So. Since I haven't really been writing, what have I been doing lately? In my post-surgery recovery, I've been watching insane amounts of General Hospital. (Jonathan Jackson is back as Lucky. Rebecca Herbst has been saved as Elizabeth. The chemistry between them is explosive.) I stopped being a Lucky/Elizabeth fan when JJ left the show and became a diehard Liason fan, but now with JJ back, I find myself rooting for LL2 once again! Plus, with a new headwriter on the show, I am looking forward to each episode to see where he takes our much-loved characters. (Soap operas have taught me the best lessons in my life--including and especially that absolutely nothing is black and white and people will always see things in their own perspective.)

I haven't really been reading much, either, but that's partially because my eyes give me a bit of trouble when I try to focus on words for too long. And with a computer-based job, that's loads of fun, lemme tell you. LOL! It'll get better when I can put my right contact back in and actually see the world clearly instead of only half-clearly.

Meanwhile I've been trying to decide what my next book to release should be. I can't decide if I want to write a new one or if I want to try one I've already got and just clean it up. Decisions decisions! I have a post somewhere on this blog where I summarized all of the stories manuscripts I have complete or mostly-complete. I'll have to find that and see if I can get buy-in on what my next publishing venture should be...

Sorry for the lack of updates lately! I'll get back into the swing of things soon! :) Until then, hope there's been a lot of amazing reading going on, and lots of enjoying the summer!

Update! Life and The Wrong Path

2011-07-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

I want to start off by apologizing for not blogging for so long... My husband went away on a business trip last week, so we literally spent every waking moment together. And then when he was gone I was depressed and so just laid in bed and watched TV. (I didn't even check my e-mail!) Then work exploded, so there was a lot of sleeping involved once I finally did get home.

And my husband came home (thankfully safe and sound!) and the next day I went straight into surgery. (A couple of years ago I had a DCR, which is fancy-talk for a blocked tear duct, and it became blocked again, so I had to go back into surgery to get it fixed again.) So I've spent the last couple of days lying in bed feeling terrible as the medicine wore off. Happy to say, though, today I'm feeling much better! Plus, I have a pretty cool-looking black eye. I'm going to tell everyone at work I fought off an attacker. Ooo! Or that I'm an undercover assassin on the weekends. Or... uhh... any other ideas?

I even have some AMAZING news to share! Thanks to all of you, and to all of you who wrote reviews and blogged about The Wrong Path, I've sold ~60 copies! Considering I had no idea if people would even find the book, to discover it's actually sold ~60 in two weeks just made me want to dance! (But I didn't literally burst into dance, because I'm still feeling pretty sick.)

A huge, huge thanks to all of you for reading the book, spreading the word, posting amazing reviews, and being so supportive. I am so honored people are spending their time reading my book. I am a lucky girl!

The good news about surgery and post-surgery sleep, btw, is the random bits of inspiration that you get struck with! The hard part is figuring out which idea to go with next... <3

Thank you again to all of you! (And leave your suggestions for my black-eye story in the comments!)

Review: Forbidden

2011-07-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

Title: Forbidden
Author: Tabitha Suzuma
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives--and the way they understand each other so completely--has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.

The Story (No Spoilers):
So, let's forget for just a second the whole "incest" portion of this story. Because--really? I don't have a brother, and if you've ever read a V.C. Andrews book, you're probably pretty immune to the concept of it being shocking. (My husband, btw, has a younger sister, and he is very quick to reassure me the idea of it has never crossed his mind and that he finds the idea of it unappealing, but that is not the point.)

So now that we're not thinking about, "ZOMG THEY'RE BROTHER AND SISTER THAT'S NASTY!", let's focus on the plot. Because under the incest storyline of this book is a story about two kids who are fantastic parents at the tender age of 16 and 17 to younger children ages 5, 8, and even 13, forced into the roles by a father who abandoned them and a mother who is hardly ever around. They work exceptionally hard at maintaining the structure of their family unit, making sure the children are fed, clothed, to school on time, and homework completed. They strive to keep the surface appearing in-tact, for fear social services will come and break their family apart.

The Characters

Maya
The 16 year-old main female character of the book. She tries hard to fit in at school, trying to keep others from learning just how horrible things truly are at home. Maya is an incredibly likeable character, strong and vulnerable at times, always trying to keep things running smoothly. She is the stable one in the book.

Lochan
The 17 year-old main male character of the book. I personally found Lochan more interesting than Maya. Lochan has an incredibly bad case of social anxiety disorder, unable to stop gnawing on his lip when confronted with social situations and unable to interact with his classmates or anyone outside of his family without stammering or turning crimson. I did think it was a little overdone at times, but then again, he could just have an incredibly bad case of it. I will say the author captured his feelings of anxiety beautifully, portraying them in a heartbreakingly realistic sense. Throughout the book you get the sense something is building inside of Lochan, possibly something violent, through small incidents here and there, but thankfully we are not subjected to seeing his beautiful character get shredded by watching it come to fruition. He is also strikingly brilliant, something that disgusts his mother who says he inherited it from his father.

The mother
I expected the mother to be the typical alcoholic-abusive mother, but instead she was a fairly happy drunk, when she was around. Oh, she had her moments of throwing tantrums and spitting out her cruel, hateful words, but overall, she was a happy-go-lucky alcoholic woman without a care in the world who wanted to reclaim the freedom she had lost when she gave her youth away to raising children she had never wanted. And in a way, you can't help feeling sorry for her.

The siblings
I loved them. All of them. Even bad-attitude 13 year-old Kit, when he stopped mouthing off and being a jerk. The youngest sister, 5 year-old Willa, was absolutely a doll, and I would be so happy if I had a daughter like her. The author absolutely managed to capture all of the children in realistic ways, so much so that I felt like I knew them personally--like they were each unique individuals I could pass on the street and meet.

The Writing
Magnificent. That is the best summation of the writing I can give you. It was truly magnificent. The author's command of the written word was just... I could cry with jealousy and awe. The way she was able to capture so much, finding the perfect words for every scene, and being able to make you literally feel like you were right there, in the moment, watching it unfold before you, was just astounding. There were parts of the book where my interest waned, but I continued reading simply because I was so in love with her writing.

The Story (Spoilers!)
Earlier I told you to forget they were brother and sister. Now I'm going to tell you why. To me, and this is strictly my own personal opinion, and I have done no research on this novel or the author or anything else, the book read like a wonderful, poignant novel about a family doing whatever it takes to get by.

Now--would if that were the tagline, would you have read this book? Would you have been intrigued by it?

No? Well... What if we had the brother and sister fall in love? With each other? Would more people be interested then?

Get where I'm going with this?

The book was insanely beautiful on its own. It didn't need the incest. I'm not saying that because I'm anti-incest. (No, I'm not getting freaky with any of my relatives and I never have--I just figure it's none of my business what people do.) I'm saying that because the story was just that strong enough on its own. The incest portion of it was more like, "Brother and sister are acting like parents/husband-and-wife for 1/4 the book... Suddenly brother and sister think the other is attractive... Brother and sister 'realize' their closeness and friendship goes beyond familial love so now they're in love and getting freaky." If the whole brother-and-sister relationship had been taken out of the book, and it had just dealt with the issues at hand: kids forced into parenthood before their time, afraid of breaking apart their family, social anxiety up the wazoo, trying to fit in, I think the book would still have been just as poignant. Because Maya and Lochan's relationship didn't make or break the book for me. It wasn't, for me, what the book was supposed to be about.

You want a book about incest? About a brother and sister falling madly, passionately in love even though they know it's wrong and not wanting to stop even though they want to stop? V.C. Andrews. She did it first; she did it best. And she wasn't ashamed of it. It was the whole point of her books. Point A: Brother and Sister. Point Z: Lovers. Not Forbidden.

Do I hope you check this book out? I do. It is well worth the read. Forget about the taboo nature of the material--it's not what's important. It's the story she's telling about survival, and mostly, doing whatever it takes to keep your family together.

Book Review: Candor

2011-07-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

Title: Candor
Author: Pam Bachorz
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
The picture-perfect new town of Candor, Florida, is attracting more and more new families, drawn by its postcard-like small-town feel, with white picket fences, spanking-new but old-fashioned-looking homes, and neighborliness.

But the parents are drawn by something else as well.

They know that in Candor their obstreperous teenagers will somehow become rewired - they'll learn to respect their elders, to do their chores, and enjoy their homework. They'll give up the tattoos, metal music, and partying that have been driving their parents crazy. They'll become every parent's dream.

My thoughts (non-spoilery!):
It seems fitting to be writing about a dystopian novel on the 4th of July. I appreciate some good irony, and this one doesn't escape me. The 4th is about celebrating letting freedom ring, and dystopian is about usually about taking that to the next level--freedom rang so much someone had to step in and take it away before the population destroyed itself.

This book, as I thought it would, reminded me of the movie Disturbing Behavior. Candor put a new spin on it, though. The residents of the town of Candor are brainwashed by Messages that filter through a constant stream of always-playing music that filters through speakers everywhere in their town. The Messages are sometimes generic in nature--Always obey your parents--to tailor-made messages for some kids--Sherman Golub is your destiny. (Yep. The Messages can even make you fall in love with someone.) As our main character Oscar is quick to tell us, if you go too long without hearing the Messages once you've started hearing them, your brain will unravel and you won't get de-brainwashed--you'll go insane and kill yourself. Oscar's father is the town founder, the leader, the one who creates the Messages and programs them for people. And for the special cases, he built what Oscar calls the Listening Room: a padded cell with speakers designed to blast your brain with Messages 24/7 until you conform.

When Oscar's girlfriend Nia, the only girl who can think for herself besides him, is sent to the Listening Room and comes out another one of the Candor drones, Oscar decides it's time to escape. But when their plans are discovered, only one of them may be able to get out before it's too late...

Characters:
Oscar
When we meet Oscar, he tells us how over the years he learned to build walls in his mind to fight the Messages, and how he's created a business getting kids with enough money out of Candor. He is abrasive and rude, often referring to women in a horribly derogatory fashion that made me almost stop reading on several occasions. It may be typical teenage boy stuff, but I still found it distasteful, and it didn't seem to help the book in any way. The town appears to be programmed to think Oscar is a celebrity, and even though he thinks for himself, it also seems to have gone to his head. I thought his appreciation for Nia--a girl who seems to fight the Messages all on her own--was well-developed, though, and over the course of the story I did come to like him.

Nia
Oscar's wild-child girlfriend had her moments for me. I liked her, but I found her pretty bland. I didn't really understand what she saw in Oscar. I'd like to say more about her, but she really didn't have much story to her and she really was there for Oscar to have his transformation.

Sherman
The author really drilled home what a disgusting, oily, nasty, blubbery, revolting slob Sherman Golub was. He almost seemed cartoonish in the way she described him, and at times the imagery made me want to retch. And yet I really felt sorry for him, and I found myself thinking Candor might not be such a bad place for someone like him--and yet he was the person Oscar was trying to help free. It made me sad. Sherman needed the most help, and he was the one not getting it.

Mandi
Mandi was Oscar's girlfriend in the beginning. She had been a beauty pagent queen until she had tortured some girl into committing suicide, and then her parents had moved to Candor. And I loved her. The author did a great job at showing Mandi's constant war with herself, struggling between her cruel nature and the perfect drone Candor had shaped her into. I honestly liked Mandi the most out of all of the characters, and I felt the most sorry for her when the former beauty queen was forced into loving Sherman. It made me sick. Especially when Mandi did everything she could to take care of him, even though she was clearly disgusted by him.

Overall (contains spoilers!):
Overall I really enjoyed the story. It was not a quick read, and there were parts I found irritating (like Oscar's brutish behavior and borderline cruelty when it came to choosing his clients--those with the most money got out). I think it would have been better if Oscar were secretly choosing his clients based on who had the best chances of survival, who was the best connected, etc. Even if it had a selfish element then, it wouldn't have been about saving the least worthy of all of them just because they had money. And I didn't like his fixation with... the female form, shall we say? Maybe boys think like that--I just didn't really want to read about it. But that's a personal preference.

What I did enjoy was Oscar's back story. A father who created the perfect town to erase every bad thing in everyone's lives--after the death of his son. A mother who ran away when she realized what her husband was doing. That's definitely an element I wish had been explored. There's a line in the novel where Oscar overhears his parents arguing before his mother leaves and his father says, "Who's more important? The son who died? Or the one who's still alive?" I liked the hidden motivation it spoke of, but it's never touched on again. And I couldn't help feeling Oscar's father knew Oscar was the one acting out in the town, but he pretended he didn't know because he wanted Oscar to be like him some day--above the Messages. But that isn't what happened, and it didn't seem like the father we caught glimpses of.

The Listening Room wasn't built up the way I think it could have been (like Unwinding in Unwind!). But it was frightening. And the book ends on an eerie note that will haunt you even after the book is over.

The Wrong Path - Out Now!

2011-07-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

It's finally here!

The Wrong Path is now out on Amazon Kindle (check it out)!

It hardly feels like weeks ago that I decided July 2nd would be the day. And yet here it is, and now The Wrong Path is available on Amazon Kindle, and it's pending review in Smashwords. (Ugh!) I've had some amazing reviews from some wonderful people, and every time I read them it just takes my breath away and I get all excited.

I always feel to shy to thank people on their own blogs for their reviews--so I'm thanking you now on mine! LOL! Carole, Maria, MisTris, Lucy, Kris, Ashley, Amanda... Thank you for giving my book a shot and for liking it and taking the time to read and review it! I can't tell you how excited I got each time I saw your reviews.

So what's on the agenda to celebrate today? Well--step one was to post about it on Kindle Boards! LOL! Step two? I thought I would write a bit. Then step three is go out with friends tonight and karaoke like crazy people. (They're all amazing singers--me? Not so much. Which makes for a very interesting time.)

You guys are amazing, and I am so happy I got to share this release with you! <3

An Idea is Born!

2011-06-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

Yay! Blogger is back! Did anyone else have trouble with it yesterday? I was so bummed out...

Also, for those of you paying close attention (and following this blog!) I set The Wrong Path to publish tonight on Amazon! It said it can take up to 24 hours for English and 2-3 days for other languages, so I decided to play it safe. (Call it a soft launch! LOL!) Pretty soon The Wrong Path will be out there for the world to see! /scared

<3

But--this post is about ideas, and writing, even though I have a ton of books I want to talk about. (Boy do I...!) As I'm about to embark on my next publishing adventure, I want to share a little bit about ideas!

For a while now, I've been thinking of my next male and female leads.

I knew exactly what kind of hero I wanted--someone funny, witty, mischievously intelligent, and full of sarcasm.

I knew exactly what kind of heroine I wanted--someone friendly, outgoing, personable, and with a sharp tongue when crossed.

But I didn't have a plot. No story. Nothing to DO with these characters. And I struggled, trying to figure out what I would do with these characters building in my head.

And then it happened.

It started about a week ago, when I was driving home. I was telling my husband a funny story about this guy I work with who I've never met because he lives in another state, and thinking that I really hope I get to meet him some day. I wondered if I'd be able to recognize him just by his (rather distinctive) accent, and laughingly thought to myself, "I bet I would."

Of course, this started me thinking about how I would translate that into a story, and a young adult setting, and the characters I would write and how I would set it up.

After several days of mulling over it, I finally came up with a way to use my characters, and include a plot (at least enough of a plot to get the story started):

A girl and boy were friends and neighbors from the time they were born until they were twelve. When the boy moved, they kept in touch over the phone, and over the years their friendship continued to grow. Whenever anything went wrong in the girl's life, he was the first person she would call. When he was picked as a starter on the basketball team, hers was the first number he dialed.

Meanwhile, the girl is having trouble at school. She's got a sharp tongue on her, and not everyone takes kindly to her attitude.

One day she walks into the school, and she hears his voice. She stops short, turns, and someone says her name. He turns to face her, and they have an excited, exuberant reunion.

And that's what I got. I never actually have a plot before I start writing, and I don't actually know when I'll start writing this one, but as soon as I came up with the beginning of the story I began to feel calmer--like the buzzing in my head had become peaceful and the puzzle solved.

So... how do you come up with ideas?

Book Review: Hush Money

2011-06-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Title: Hush Money (Talent Chronicles #1)
Author: Susan Bischoff
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
Be normal, invisible. Don’t get close to anyone. Kids with psychic abilities tend to mysteriously disappear when they get noticed. Joss has spent years trying to hide. Now she has an unasked-for best friend, who is the victim of an extortion plot by the school bully, who used to like Joss, who is best friends with her long-time crush, who is actually talking to her. Life just got more complicated.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me, and while the description sounded interesting, it didn't really entice me enough to want to read it over the others in my TBR list. But tonight I was looking at my books and thought, "I'll give this one a try." And I am so glad I did! This book was amazing!

The Plot
Some special kids are gifted (or cursed) with special abilities called "Talents," and those who have Talents tend to disappear to government facilities--and are never seen or heard from again. There are rumors about how horrible the place is, and that the kids are being tortured and put through rigorous training, but no solid evidence. Joss is trying to keep her Talent a secret, because her family doesn't want her to get kidnapped and taken away. As a result, she spends the majority of her time isolated from the rest of the students, thinking a friend means spilling her secret and possibly ending up in one of the government facilities. When a new girl, Kat, comes along and befriends Joss, Joss finds herself opening up more--and risking her safety as a result. After a party at Kat's house goes horribly wrong, and the government comes looking for one of the Talented kids, the others with hidden Talents band together to save him with Kat as their ringleader and Joss as their reluctant mastermind. Then they discover there's a spy amongst them, a Talent, who is telling the government which students possess a Talent. And they need to find out who before they're all sent away for good.

Characters
Joss was strong in a self-assured, confident kind of way, not a rude kind of way. She was realistic in her thoughts about high school and while I didn't always agree with her choices, the author does get you right inside of her head and you totally understand why Joss is behaving the way she does.

Dylan (the love interest) is cool: a bit of a slacker-delinquent, laid-back, but secretly wants to be the hero. He goes out of his way to protect Joss and stand up for what he thinks is right, and even though there are times he backs down, you can understand why. And it might pain you, but you can't help agreeing he probably made the right decision. There were several times where I found myself cheering for Dylan.

Kat
I love Kat. She was witty and a little dryly sarcastic at times, but she was so friendly and encouraging I couldn't help but love her. I hope she's not the spy. (Please don't let her be the spy!)

The Writing
I loved the writing in this book. It was simple, easy reading, but didn't undermine the readers intelligence by only using small words. It was conversational and descriptive without being wordy. A very easy read, and I must say, my favorite writing style.

I, personally, cannot wait to read the next book in this series. I can't believe I even paused long enough to write this review of it!

Scene Sunday! #4

2011-06-26T19:38:00.000-07:00

Scene Sunday Concept: The 5W1H Rule--answer the questions, and create a scene based on it!

www.inspiring-photos.com

Who: The shadows in the shadow realm.
What: Are overjoyed to see one another again.
Where: On the streets in New York.
Why: Because they only see one another once a day at the same location.
When: Dusk/evening.
How did it go: They danced until they couldn't see each other anymore.

Scene:
It was almost time.

There had been so many cold, dismal, gray days lately she hadn't been allowed to come outside. She hadn't been able to see anything, let alone him, in what felt like years. But now the sun was out, and slowly setting behind the large buildings, with plenty of light to allow her to roam freely.

She watched the corner intently, waiting for him to come around it. The man he was attached to walked slowly, but she appreciated his slowness just as much as she appreciated the woman's she was attached to. Once upon a time, when the woman had been a young girl, she had loved the girl's fast pace, and as the girl grew older, began to resent the slow speed in which she strode. But now her patient, steady amble presented more than enough time for her to wave an excited greeting to him. He waved merrily in response, as ecstatic to see her as she was to see him.

She curtsied to him, elegant and graceful. He bowed deeply in response, and as the two humans drew closer they drew closer as well. She straightened, holding her arms up tall to fall into his arms. He caught her as she knew he would, and for a brief moment they embraced, holding one another, and she lost herself in the moment, blissful at the sensation of being enveloped in the darkness that matched her own.

The woman's slow gait began to take her away, and it was with great reluctance she released him, curtsying deeply. He bowed again in response, and as the woman turned the corner of the old stone building she was pulled from his sight--the worst part of her day.

But tomorrow, she reminded herself. Tomorrow might be another day with sunlight. And tomorrow she might see him again.

TBR List #7

2011-06-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks a lot, Goodreads.

I got all excited about these books, and because I'm a sucker who just can't say no, went to buy them. Imagine my horror when I discovered they're NOT EVEN OUT YET. Epic fail. /sadface

But that's okay! I'm still going to share with you my awesome new finds, and we can all pine away together!

Title: The Faerie Ring (The Faerie Ring #1)
Author: Kiki Hamilton
Expected publication: September 27th 2011
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
Debut novelist Kiki Hamilton takes readers from the gritty slums and glittering ballrooms of Victorian London to the beguiling but menacing Otherworld of the Fey in this spellbinding tale of romance, suspense, and danger.

The year is 1871, and Tiki has been making a home for herself and her family of orphans in a deserted hideaway adjoining Charing Cross Station in central London. Their only means of survival is by picking pockets. One December night, Tiki steals a ring, and sets off a chain of events that could lead to all-out war with the Fey. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and it binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace. With the ring missing, a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and blood—Tiki’s blood.

Unbeknownst to Tiki, she is being watched—and protected—by Rieker, a fellow thief who suspects she is involved in the disappearance of the ring. Rieker has secrets of his own, and Tiki is not all that she appears to be. Her very existence haunts Prince Leopold, the Queen’s son, who is driven to know more about the mysterious mark that encircles her wrist.

Prince, pauper, and thief—all must work together to secure the treaty…

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Title: As I Wake
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Expected publication: September 15th 2011
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
Ava is welcomed home from the hospital by a doting mother, lively friends, and a crush finally beginning to show interest. There's only one problem: Ava can't remember any of them - and can't shake the eerie feeling that she's not who they say she is.

Ava struggles to break through her amnesiac haze as she goes through the motions of high-school life, but the memories that surface take place in a very different world, where Ava and familiar-faced friends are under constant scrutiny and no one can be trusted. Ava doesn't know what to make of these visions, or of the boy who is at the center of them all, until he reappears in her life and offers answers . . . but only in exchange for her trust.

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Title: Half-Blood (Covenant #1)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Expected publication: September 15th 2011
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi pure-bloods have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:

Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.

Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

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Title: Dearly, Departed
Author: Lia Habel
Expected publication: October 18th 2011
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
Love can never die.

Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune, and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

In Dearly, Departed, steampunk meets romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.

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Title: The Pledge
Author: Kimberly Derting
Expected publication: November 15th 2011
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
Words are the most dangerous weapon of all...

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she’s spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.

Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can’t be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country’s only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.

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Title: Eve (The Eve Trilogy #1)
Author: Anna Carey
Expected publication: October 4th 2011 (my anniversary!)
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
The year is 2032, sixteen years after a deadly virus—and the vaccine intended to protect against it—wiped out most of the earth’s population. The night before eighteen-year-old Eve’s graduation from her all-girls school she discovers what really happens to new graduates, and the horrifying fate that awaits her.

Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust...and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

Review: Wither

2011-06-21T23:29:00.000-07:00

Title: Wither (The Chemical Garden #1)
Author: Lauren DeStefano
See it on Goodreads!

Description:
What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb — males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape — to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

My thoughts:
The summary of the book did not summarize the actual book itself. I really expected the book to focus a lot more on the world itself, and less about the polygamist marriage. In fact, the overarching story of their lives being short seemed to take a backseat to the polygamist lifestyle--as if the author wanted to tell a story about polygamy but needed to modernize the story in order to do it.

But this is not a negative review. I absolutely loved this book and if you haven't already bought it, you need to get it.

I'm going to go spoiler-heavy, so you've been warned. Skip this if you don't wanna know.

The author's style of prose was incredible. I mean, second-to-none. If I can ever write like this, I will die a very happy woman. She has a talent--a pure gift--that that is truly quite breathtaking. She can set a scene with a few simple, carefully selected words. And she's not afraid to throw in some large words to do it, undermining the YA audience's intelligence level.

Her craft of characters was both brilliant and disappointing. (Again, this is not a negative review. Buy this book.) She had extremely strong characters. You liked each of them. You understood each of their motivations. I would have liked to see more of the hidden story/motivation behind the big bad guy, but since this is part of a series, I guess the author couldn't give away too much in book one.

A lot was hinted at, but nothing really resolved, and I found that incredibly disappointing. It wasn't even not-resolved in a cliffhanger sort of way, it just left you with a vague, unfinished feeling that makes you both want to immediately pick up the next book and find out what's going on, and kind of irritated at the same time. If I had the second book in front of me, I probably wouldn't feel this way. For example, you know the big bad guy is a big bad guy, but you kind of wonder if he's really not the big bad guy everyone makes him out to be. You know he's doing horrible things to everyone, but you never really find out what. Things we'll find out in the next book? Probably. Irritating to not resolve in book one? Yes.

Summary of the book:
Rhine (what kind of name is Rhine? Really?) is kidnapped and forced into a polygamist marriage with two other girls: Jenna and Cecily. Their husband Linden is already married to a woman who is already twenty and therefore dying, since all girls die at the age of twenty and all men at the age of twenty-five. His father is fabulously wealthy, and so Linden can afford these fancy new wives. Rhine strikes up a friendship with the dying Rose, who tells Rhine that she's going to become Linden's new favorite when Rose dies. Meanwhile, Linden's father, Vaughn, is a mysterious figure in the background, a doctor at a hospital "trying to find a cure" to fix the disease wiping out humanity.

Rose dies, and little Cecily, who is not even fourteen, becomes pregnant shortly after Linden marries the three girls. Rhine starts to fall for the servant Gabriel (BE STILL MY HEART--GABRIEL IS EPIC AWESOMENESS AND WE WILL DISCUSS HIM AT LENGTH LATER), and mourns her twin brother, who she was stolen from. She also starts to strike up a friendship with her sister wives, including Jenna, whose sisters were shot and killed in the van the girls were transported in when they weren't selected to be Linden's brides. (Jenna is a freaking badass, y'all. Love Jenna.) Rhine and Gabriel are stuck in the basement, where they see Rose's corpse wheeled by on a gurney and see some men discussing it, but the book resolves without finding out to what end.

Soon Rhine finds herself developing a fondness for Linden, who of course was oblivious to the plight the girls had suffered to become his wives--he thought they had wanted to become wives and the ones he didn't select were sent back to their orphanages or to their homes and not murdered or sold into prostitution--but she still doesn't abandon her hope of wanting to escape.

Eventually Rhine and Gabriel escape together, and that's sadly how the book ends, without anything getting resolved.

Memorable quotes (mostly courtesy of Gabriel--seriously, he was SO awesome... serious, funny, witty, sweet... I might have melted a few times...):

She looks to me for help, but the only game I know is the one where my brother and I set noise traps in the kitchen and try to survive the night intact. And when I was taken by Gatherers, I sort of lost.
I laughed out loud at this.

“No,” I say. “He won’t know I’m gone. He doesn’t notice me.”
“He notices you,” Gabriel says. I look at him, unbelieving, but he has turned his blue eyes away from me.
I might have swooned. Gabriel. Oh Gabriel.

The homesickness that comes with my brother’s memory is not so bad. Not with Gabriel for company and a tray of pancakes and the June Bean he’s hidden in the napkin.
Another super cute, super sweet moment. GABRIEL. I LOVE YOU!

A party in the orange grove. The pain on Linden’s face is immediate. I am unwavering. He has cost me more pain than I will ever be able to repay.
Rhine is a freaking badass right here.

Jenna looks at her lap, and her lip quirks in what I think will be a smile or a laugh, but her eyes well with tears and her voice is broken when she says, “My sisters were in that van.”
I might have teared up a little here.

Her smile is her revenge.
Jenna rocked this freaking hardcore, and I absolutely love the author for this line. I got chills.

[Rhine and Gabriel see a movie marquee for an all-night zombie-fest]
He says, “What’s a zombie?”
Oh Gabriel. You're so cute.

“This is what Manhattan is like,” I whisper to him.
“People crawl out of their graves in Manhattan?”

I might have LOL'd again.

“Think you can steer us out of this place on one of those boats?” I say.
“Oh, absolutely.”
“You sure?” I say.
“Well, if I’m wrong, I guess we die.”
Have I mentioned how much I love Gabriel? That dry wit just killed me...

Now. If you haven't bought this book already... Why not?!

The Wrong Path - First Review!

2011-06-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

Yay!!!

The Wrong Path has its first review! I am so excited, oh my gosh! Maria at reading is the ultimate aphrodisiac wrote a review of The Wrong Path--check it out!

Manga Monday! #7 - MeruPuri

2011-06-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

Title: MeruPuri
Author: Matsuri Hino
Available: Amazon and wherever VIZ Media LLC are sold!
Price: $8.99/book
Books in series: 4

Description:
All high school freshman Airi Hoshina ever wanted was to someday live in a cozy home with a loving husband and find joy in the little things in life. As a result, she makes it her daily mission to get to school on time because school legend has it that the longer one's non-tardy streak is, the better boyfriend one will find. But just when her daily routine is working like clockwork, an occurrence of fairy-tale proportions threatens to disrupt her grand plan.

On the way to school one morning, Airi loses her mirror—one that has been passed down to her through generations—and suddenly finds herself in a bizarre situation. Never in her wildest dreams did she expect Aram, a little boy from a magical kingdom, to have emerged from the mirrior in the short time it took her to track it down!

Why you want this manga: This is one of the cutest mangas of all time. (Also, while I was looking this up, I discovered this author is behind Vampire Knight... Holy crap!) It's about a girl who meets this little boy, and he quickly falls in love with her... and sometimes he grows up into a teenager her own age! Don't worry, it's not super creepy--she only likes him when he's a teenager. But he has the cutest line of all time in this story... At one point he's a teenager and he tells her to kiss him to return him to his normal size because, "She seems uncomfortable around him when he's grown up." It's so sweet! *squeal* It's your typical fantasy shoujo manga, a cute little love story, and you can't help but fall in love with Aram--a true prince!

TBR List - # I-Lost-Count

2011-06-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have found some amazing books recently, and I had to share. I also recently discovered my TBR list on Goodreads, and there are so many books on there... Yikes! I really need to clean that thing out...

Title: Above
Author: Leah Bobet
Release Date: Spring 2012 (so far away!!)
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
Matthew's father had lion's feet and his mother had gills, and both fled the modern-day city to live in underground Safe, a secret community of freaks, ghost-whisperers, and disabled outcasts hidden beyond the subways and sewers. Raised underground, Matthew is responsible for the keeping of both Safe's histories and the traumatized shapeshifter Ariel, the girl he took in, fell in love with – and can't stop from constantly running away.

But Safe is no longer safe: the night after a frightening encounter in the sewers, Safe's founder Atticus is murdered by the one person Safe ever exiled: mad Corner, whose coup is backed by an army of mindless, whispering shadows.

Only Matthew, Ariel, and a handful of unstable, crippled compatriots escape to the city that cast them out; the dangerous place he knows only as Above. Despite Ariel's increasingly erratic behaviour and with the odds against them, Matthew must find a way to rescue Safe from Corner's occupying army. But as his quest leads him through abandoned asylums and the dregs of urban poverty, Matthew discovers that the histories he's devoted his life to aren't true: Corner's invasion -- and Ariel's terrors – are rooted in a history of Safe much darker and bloodier than Matthew ever imagined.

And even if he manages to save both home and Ariel, he may well lose himself.

Why I want this book: It. Looks. Amazing. OMG! Love the post-apocalyptic feel. And it just sounds so intriguing!

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Title: The Iron King (Iron Fey #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.
Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Why I want this book: I know what you're thinking: "Vivian, you sold out! You just want it because it's popular." But no. While I have been seeing reviews and mentions of this book everywhere, I read a review of this book that made me go, "Okay. I have to check this thing out." Before that review (and I've seen dozens of them!) I wasn't the least bit interested. Plus, the last part of the last line drew me in: "and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart." So I'm a sucker for romance! I can't help myself.

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Title: Candor
Author: Pam Bachorz
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
In the model community of Candor, Florida, every teen wants to be like Oscar Banks. The son of the town's founder, Oscar earns straight As, is student-body president, and is in demand for every club and cause. But Oscar has a secret. He knows that parents bring their teens to Candor to make them respectful, compliant–perfect–through subliminal Messages that carefully correct and control their behavior. And Oscar' s built a business sabotaging his father's scheme with Messages of his own, getting his clients out before they're turned. After all, who would ever suspect the perfect Oscar Banks? Then he meets Nia, the girl he can't stand to see changed. Saving Nia means losing her forever. Keeping her in Candor, Oscar risks exposure . . . and more.

Why I want this book: I read a review of this book on The Book Addicted Girl, and I knew I had to have it. Dystopian? Check. Romance? Check. Plus--read her review! Who wouldn't want it after that?! It has a Disturbing Behavior feel to it, and I loved the concept of that movie.

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Title: Breath of Angel (The Angeleon Circle #1)
Author: Karyn Henley
Release date: Jun 21, 2011
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
The stranger’s cloak had fallen back, and with it, a long, white, blood-stained wing.

When Melaia, a young priestess, witnesses the gruesome murder of a stranger in the temple courtyard, age-old legends recited in song suddenly come to life. She discovers wings on the stranger, and the murderer takes the shape of both a hawk and a man.

Angels. Shape-shifters. Myths and stories—until now.

Melaia finds herself in the middle of a blood feud between two immortal brothers who destroyed the stairway to heaven, stranding angels in the earthly realm. When the feud turns violent and Melaia becomes a target, she finds refuge with a band of angels attempting to restore the stairway. But the restoration is impossible without the repayment of an ancient debt—the “breath of angel, blood of man,” a payment that involves Melaia’s heart, soul, and destiny.

Why I want this book: I'm vaguely obsessed with angels and demons. I wrote two different stories about angels and demons. Plus, the whole "in the middle of a blood feud between two immortal brothers who destroyed the stairway to heaven" sold me. So intriguing!

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Title: Forbidden
Author: Tabitha Suzuma
Expected publication: June 28th 2011
Find it on Goodreads!

Description:
UK Edition:
She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But ...They are brother and sister.

U.S. Edition:
Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives--and the way they understand each other so completely--has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.

Why I want this book: I have been looking at this book for... a long time. It reminds me of V.C. Andrew's books, where the brother and sister always fall in love. I find the taboo subject of incestuous love fascinating--the idea of, "If we hadn't grown up together, could we have fallen in love?", and, "Why aren't adopted brothers and sisters interested in each other?" I don't know why I find it interesting and I don't know the answer to either question, but it all comes down to love, wrong or not. (And I love love!) There's an inherent drama in just the topic alone--more than enough to spawn an intriguing novel full of angst. I read a review of it on Bookchilla's Reading is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac blog, and I immediately went to buy it. Imagine my disappointment when I saw it was still only available in the UK, and Amazon UK won't sell to the U.S. (ARGH!)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The Wrong Path on Goodreads!

2011-06-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh!!

So I posted about The Wrong Path yesterday, advertising eARCs of the book. You can't imagine how ecstatic I was when people started responding, saying the book looked interesting and they would like to read it. (You really can't imagine--I think I walked with a spring in my step all day! LOL!)

Today I was on my Goodreads page, and OMG! Someone posted the book details and linked it to my Author page! (I don't know who it was, but kind soul, I love you!) I was trying to figure out how to do that myself, but maybe I'm just a ditz because I couldn't figure it out. (I finally did late this afternoon.)

So now I present you The Wrong Path on Goodreads! Yay!!

Giveaway! Advanced Review Copy: The Wrong Path

2011-06-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

The time has finally come!

The Wrong Path is ready to be released!

They were the ones everyone wanted to be. Except on the inside.

Annabelle's life was finally going according to plan. She had the right group of friends. Her childhood crush had finally started to notice her. She was pretty, popular, and in love.

And then one terrible night at a party Will enters her life and everything changes.

Will is the polar opposite of his older brother Trevor—Annabelle’s new boyfriend—the popular, straight-A, quarterback high school star. He's wild, charismatic, and full of secrets. He's completely different from anyone Annabelle has ever known, and soon their accidental run-in becomes a pattern as Annabelle finds herself seeking him out wherever she goes. Despite his open hostility with his older brother, Annabelle is drawn to him, wanting to be with him. Will opens a new world for Annabelle, one where she can shed her carefully constructed mask and be herself.

But being with Will comes at a price. And when tragedy strikes, she has to make a choice between the two brothers.

And the wrong one means losing everything forever.

Watch the trailer:

Release date: July 2, 2011!

In honor of this exciting occasion, which I have to admit I have been eagerly anticipating, I'm giving away 10 review copies of The Wrong Path (sorry--electronic only)!

If you'd like a review copy, please send me an e-mail at vivianmarieaubinduparis@gmail.com or leave a comment below!

City High - Chapter Two

2011-06-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

I had planned on blogging another writing tip today, but then I got sucked into editing and decided to forgo it in order to post another chapter of City High.

Enjoy!

City High

Seventeen year-old Lillian is used to being abandoned on a relative's front door while her father vacations on a distant island. But cousin Lauren isn't like the others. She's cool, fun, and genuinely welcoming. Lillian enjoys staying with Lauren and being with her friends in the city. There's even gorgeous, mysterious Jake, who Lauren solicited to keep an eye on Lillian.

But then the threats begin. Warnings written on her mirror. Dead animals in her bed. Eyes staring at her in the darkness. Someone is going out of their way to torment Lillian.

And then Lauren's friends begin dying.

Chapter one
Chapter two

Manga Monday! #4

2011-06-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

I love Manga Monday. I should make a button for it.

Title: Tenshi Ja Nai!! aka I'm No Angel!!
Author: Takako Shigematsu
Price: Between $4.00 and $10.00
Books in Series: 8
Get it at Amazon or wherever Go Comi manga are sold!

Description: In the play of life, all Hikaru Takabayashi wanted was to be part of the scenery, but fate had other ideas. When the 15-year-old introvert transfers to an all-girls academy, her new roommate turns out to be the super-popular TV idol Izumi Kido! As if living with a celebrity wasn’t bad enough, Hikaru discovers that there’s more to Izumi than her “good girl” image—she’s a he! Now Hikaru’s the unwilling star player in a madcap tale of deception, abduction, humiliation and blackmail…you know—the usual romantic stuff.

Why You Want This Manga: Yes, it's your typical gender-bender shoujo manga... Boy (or girl) disguises himself (or herself!) as a member of the opposite sex, generally to get into an all-boys (or all-girls) school to achieve some goal. But this one is just so damn cute, and unlike most gender-bender mangas, the leading girl finds out pretty quickly that "she" is really a "he." And he knows she knows! Hikaru works with Izumi to keep his secret and keep the rest of the school, who worship Izumi, from finding out Izumi's real identity. And Izumi is still strong, tough, and masculine when he needs to be, which allows for just enough romance between the two. Definitely a must-read, especially if it's your first gender-bender!

Scene Sunday! #3

2011-06-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

Scene Sunday!

A couple of weeks ago I blogged a writing tip for creating "scenes" for a story. And I kinda dig it, and it's great for the idea journal (which you should have by now!) so here goes this week's:

Image from inspiring-photos.com.

Who: A woman.
What: Discovers her husband has left roses all around their hotel room.
Where: Paris, France.
Why: It's their anniversary and he wanted to make it special.
When: Winter.
How did it go: They danced in their hotel room.

Scene:
She emerged from the bathroom, sliding her earring through the hole in her left ear with one hand and putting the backing on with the other. She had slipped on the long-sleeved red dress with the low-cut neck she had bought just for their anniversary dinner, and carefully curled her hair the way her husband liked. It had taken her longer than she expected to finish getting dressed, but she had been pleased with the results when she finally drew back to look at herself in the mirror.

"Honey, we need to go or we'll be late for our--" she broke off, stumbling over her own feet as she stared at the room.

The lights in the spacious suite had been dimmed, the darkness from the window highlighted by the twinkling gold lights decorating the surroundings buildings. Around the room were dozens of red roses, red petals scattered along the floor and the furniture. She gazed around the room in disbelief, breathless at the beauty staring at her.

From the open French doors joining the living room to the bedroom, her husband emerged, looking elegant and stunning in a classic black tuxedo. He held a single, long-stemmed red rose in his hand, a small smile on his face.

"What...?" was all she could choke out.

He approached, his black patent shoes clicking on the tiled floor. "We've been married for ten years," he began, his face so full of love she couldn't even miss it. "And in those ten years, I've never done anything romantic for you, even though I know you've always wanted me to." He finally stood before her, holding out the rose. "So this year, I vow to make every anniversary after this special and romantic."

She numbly took the rose, feeling tears spring to her eyes. "Why this year?" she managed to ask. "Why is this year so special?"

He gave her a gentle smile, tinged with sadness. "Every year has been special," he told her softly, the back of his fingers caressing her cheek. "This is just the first year I've been able to plan something I thought worthy of you."

She threw her arms around him, hugging him fiercely. "It's beautiful," she whispered. "I love you."

His hands lightly wrapped around her waist, then lifted her right hand from his neck. She pulled back, frowning curiously. He suddenly spun her out of his embrace, a romantic, lovely violin sound filling the room.

She gasped, searching for the sound. He snapped her back into his arms, holding her right hand in his, spinning her to the melody. Her eyes fell over his shoulder, where three musicians stood in the corner in black tuxedos, two with violins, one with a bass. She looked up at her husband, wide-eyed, trying to hold back her tears.

"I love you," he said, giving her a little twirl. "I've loved you for the last ten years, and after tonight, I'm going to love you for ten more. And then another ten more. Until I've spent my whole life in love with you."

She felt a tear trickle down her carefully made-up face and nodded. "I'll look forward to it," she whispered.

City High - Chapter One!

2011-06-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

So, a while ago I wrote about my discovery of FictionPress. It's just like Fanfiction.com, but for original work.

Ever since I found it, I've been toying with the idea of posting a story there. I mentioned in that same post about my stories that aren't publishable for various reasons, but I really enjoyed them and wanted to share them anyway.

So last night I was scouring my folder of stories, and I found my story I affectionately named City High. (I don't know why I called it that--I think I'd been listening to that song "Sugar High" a lot.) It's one I could never publish because it deals with murder and crime and police--all things I know very little about. So I started reading through it, and thought, "You know... I could probably post this one... But it needs a lot of editing..."

Fast-forward several hours, and chapter one was ready. I stared at it, hesitant and afraid, and finally said, "Hell. I'll just do it. If nothing else, I can add it to my Stories page on my blog." So I signed into my FictionPress account and then froze.

I didn't have a story summary.

If you know me at all, you know I suck at summaries. I don't know why. I just really do. I can't capture attention in a few short paragraphs. I can't summarize what I'm writing. But I started writing out a summary (I usually go through about fifteen drafts of a summary/blurb) and to my surprise, it flowed quite easily. I was pretty pleased with it. I had to shorten it quite a bit to fit inside the 255 character limit for summaries on FictionPress, but it worked out fairly well.

So then I added chapter one to the story, and hit, "Publish."

Now, there's an inherent danger here. You'll notice I said I only edited chapter one. I hate posting stories before the entire thing is done. What if I want to change the plot/characters halfway through? I'd have written myself into a corner! But luckily, I've had this story sitting around for forever, and I'm pretty sure the overarching plot isn't going to change. (It can't, really, it's the plot.)

So chapter one is live, and now I'm waiting with eager anticipation to see if anyone reads it. Most of the time when I post a story, it takes about three or four chapters to really get readers--and then more show up as time progresses. I think that's why they say writer's are in it for the long-haul, and it's not a sprint it's a marathon.

If you're interested, you can read the summary and find the link to chapter one on the Stories page above. If you do, happy reading! <3

Indie-find Friday! Vampires Rule

2011-06-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

Title: Vampires Rule
Author: K. C. Blake
Price: $0.99
Get it at Amazon or Smashwords!

Description: They don't call him Jackpot for nothing.

Jack has always beat the odds... at least until now. When he was attacked by a werewolf, vampires saved him. When he got tired of living the vampire life, another werewolf attack freed him, making him human again. Now Jack just wants to live a normal life, but what's normal about a hunter girlfriend, a brother who wants to stake him to be on the safe side, and a head werewolf building an army to rule the world?

Jack gets caught between his old friends and new, hunters and vampires. He wants to stay loyal to both, wants to protect everyone. Unfortunately, both sides are determined to kill the other. In the end, he'll have to make a choice.

Why I want to read this book: I found the author's blog on Goodreads, and I thought, "She sounds nice. I'll check out her blog." So I went. And then I read her post about being an indie author and all the things she's done to try and get her book out there, and I thought, "She kinda sounds like me. I'm going to check out her book." So I clicked on the sample chapter she had available on her blog. And I was immediately impressed by the writing. I was interested. So I went to the link to her book, and thought, "Wow. This sounds really good. I love vampires. I like a good romance with issues--and a vampire dating a vampire hunter is full of issues. Especially since he's not a vampire anymore. What!" I did check out the reviews she had up on Amazon already, and they were pretty positive--even the ones with "feedback" were pretty positive. I'd say that is an excellent thing.

So, to sum up: vampires? check. romance? check. indie author? check. I had the book on its way in minutes!

Review: The Warlord's Secret - Lizzy Ford

2011-06-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

Title: The Warlord's Secret
Author: Lizzy Ford
Price: FREE
Get it at Smashwords!

Description:
The demon-possessed Warlord of Tiyan is at war with enemy kingdoms and her own impending madness. She discovers the answer to both her problems in Taran, a slave-turned-scout obsessed with vengeance and determined to have Tiyan and its queen for his own. Fantasy romance. Non-erotica.

Review:

I was entranced at page 1.

We found the demon when we took this land near the great cliffs.

And then again just a few pages later:
The demon’s triumph sickened her. Her father ruled a full thirty summers before the demon spoke to him and drove him mad. At five years into her rule and mere days from war, was she already toppling down the path of madness?

The beginning was intriguing, but a little confusing. (Probably because "war" isn't really in my genre.) But the writing was so incredibly breathtaking that I had to keep reading. I had to keep reading more of the wonderfully lyrical prose. The plot was unbelievably good and interesting--there's a demon inside of her? She makes the main (hero) her slave? Win!

The beginning of each chapter was absolutely the most fascinating piece of literature... ever. Each chapter began with excerpts from The Book of the Damned," and if the whole book had been written in the same format or using the same characters, I wouldn't have been able to put it down. It was so beautifully written and interesting--I kept wanting to skip the rest of the chapter to read more excerpts!

Was it my genre? No. Did I love it anyway? Yes. If I could write half as good as Lizzy Ford, I would be a happy, happy girl. Plus--it was a free download! (!!! Free!)

Scene Sunday!

2011-06-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

So last week I posted a writer's tip for creating scenes. It was kind of fun, so I decided to do it again today. If you feel so inclined, you're welcome to make up your own scene in the comment section!

Image from Inspiring-Photos.com.

Who: 17 year old high school girl.
What: On her way to meet her essay partner--at the beach.
Where: Malibu, California
Why: There's a project due at school on Monday, and they haven't started.
When: Early evening.
How did it go: They ditch working on the project to hang out with some cute surfers.

Brianne headed straight for her car, her assignment sheet and research papers in one hand, her cell phone in the other. "We've got to finish it tonight, Kim," she sighed into the phone. "It's due tomorrow."

"We'll be fine, Bri," came Kim's reassuring voice. "I've got a plan."

Brianne paused with her door open, one foot in the car and the other out. "Do you mean you have some weird scheme in mind that's going to end up with me grounded? Because I'm still mad about taking the fall for the fence-thing."

"That was Bobby fault--not mine," Kim reminded hastily. "I told him not to push the button."

Brianne sighed. Whoever had pushed the button, she had been the one trapped inside the field, and the one left to apologize to the owner for the mess they had created. Instead of calling the cops he'd called her parents, and she'd been grounded for nearly two months. She had almost wished he'd called the cops instead.

She finished climbing into the car, switching it to speaker phone as she drove. "Where are you now?" she asked.

"Sitting at the Malibu cafe, checking out a gorgeous group of guys who just strolled in."

Brianne groaned. "Kim," she said warningly. "We're going to finish our paper. Tonight. I can't fail this class."

"I'm just looking!" Kim protested defensively, her high-pitched tone a dead giveaway for the lie. Brianne sighed, backing her car out of the driveway. She knew Kim. Kim couldn't resist a group of cute boys, and more importantly, they couldn't resist her, either. Kim would have them at her table in less than the ten minutes it would take Brianne to get to the cafe, and their assignment would be abandoned in favor of spending the evening with this group of boys.

Maybe Mr. Sayer would give them an extension on the paper.

The Semantics War - AKA - Why I Stopped Participating in Forum Discussions

2011-06-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

Heads up: This is a rant. I read a forum post and it made me cry. And because I'm a writer, I'm writing about it. You can skip this if you don't care.

When you talk to someone, you're never really sure how your words are going to come across.

As a writer, I understand this better than anyone. When I write something, I am never sure how someone will interpret what is on the page (or screen!), and I accept that. I like to leave things a little open, to give the reader a chance to use their imagination. Because trying to write what's in my head word-for-word would be too many pages of minute detail, and I don't have the patience for it and I don't think the reader does, either. (My point--someone could take that and say, "You're making assumptions based on your readers. You can't make a broad declarative statement like that because you'll alienate a good majority of the population.")

So when I go to a forum to read a post, I interpret what the author is saying with my own unique experiences and background. Maybe I like what they have to say, and maybe I don't. But I will read it through my eyes, and I understand that they have written it through theirs. The same is true when I talk with someone. I hear them in my way, and know they are speaking to me in theirs.

I was hanging out on Goodreads, and I stumbled upon this forum post that summed up everything I hate about forum participation: semantics wars, people's unending cruelty, insistence to show off and be "better" and "smarter" than everyone else, and condescending nature:
Qualms with YA Adult Authors from an Avid Reader

I cried while reading this post.

Now that the internet has opened the doors of communication, people find it easier to be opinionated and feel everyone has the right to their opinions--and must listen to them and deal with them, whether they like it or not. You can no longer make declarative statements and have people assume it ends with, "in my opinion." Making a declarative statement means you are stating something for the general public--and how dare you? We must be politically correct. Never mind that the more politically correct we are, the more we perpetuate the idea there's something wrong with the topic we're all clearly avoiding.

The underlying argument in the semantics war is that everyone should be using the same terminology to say the same thing. But imagine, dear reader, how "interesting" a book would be if everyone spoke the same way. If everyone used the same wording to write. You could argue people need to clarify themselves in speaking or writing--but why? Are we not intelligent enough creatures to understand a person's statement is simply their own? What drives the need to correct each other's way of speaking, of writing, of meaning when communicating? So we're, "all on the same page"? We will never be on the same page. We can't possibly be.

What we can do is be polite. Be courteous. Be understanding. And if we disagree, do it kindly, respectfully, and with decency. No one likes to be put down or insulted.

And you can rip that to shreds all you want.

The Quest of Dai: The Eroe - CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE GAME!

2011-06-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

OMG.

My husband just showed me a text-based game he was making--an interactive text web page--for a Quest of Dai: The Eroe GAME. It is AWESOME. HOLY CRAP.

Example:
Dai bolted up in bed, gasping for air. The red eyes from her nightmare hung in the recesses of her mind, mocking her fear. Silent laughter echoed around the room and she shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself as icy cold wind snaked across her body. She looked over at the door, relieved to see Westly's sleeping figure.

Does Dai: wake Westly up or go back to bed?
[Underlined lines are links!]
[You select one of the options, and new text shows up! Let's say we selected "wake Westly up".]

Dai crept up from the bed, slowly making her way across the room to where Westly sat, guarding her even in sleep. She watched his eyelashes part, his head lifting to look up at her. For a moment she stood uncertainly, meeting his unreadable gaze, and then she slowly finished crossing the distance between them.

Does Dai: tell Westly about her nightmare or sit silently beside him?

Get the idea?! It's a choose-your-own-adventure! On a web page! With The Quest of Dai! /giddy

Tell me that isn't awesome! My husband is so cool.

The Quest of Dai: The Eroe - Leaving Circulation!

2011-06-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

Success!

The awesome people at Outskirts Press got back to me and told me they would be getting in touch with me shortly about removing The Quest of Dai: The Eroe from circulation for good. (I don't remember their exact terminology, but it sounded very final--I think she said something like "deleting the title" or something.) So... yay! The ISBN will still exist, so technically the book will still exist as having been written, but no one will be able to get it--and that matters!

They also confirmed I will be able to republish the revised version under the same title, The Quest of Dai: The Eroe. So, phew! on that one.

I did a little more editing on the opening chapters last night after I blogged, and I plan on doing some more after I finish typing this. (I just can't let go!) I find myself analyzing every little word, wondering, "Is this the right one? Does this sound okay? Does it flow?" And then I remind myself, no matter what, it still beats the first time I published it. :)

I think that's one of the dangers of indie publishing... You are your own worst enemy. I found myself staring at the Outskirts Press book package add-ons and eyeing the ghost-writer option, wondering, "Hmm... Do I need that?" (The answer, I sincerely hope, is no!)

So--that's where we stand. I'm removing The Quest of Dai: The Eroe for good, and publishing a new version that will hopefully be way more awesome...

Maybe I should hold a virtual launch party. Or a giveaway. HMMM...

Post-Publication Revisions? Not So Easy...

2011-06-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

As we all know by now, I've redone The Quest of Dai: The Eroe.

Some day I'll write about everything I learned in this publishing process, but for now, let me tell you what happened in the last couple of days. I reached out to Outskirts Press, the publisher I used for The Quest of Dai: The Eroe, and ordered their post-publication revision package. I was ecstatic.

A very, very nice woman e-mailed me back with a Word document template asking me to fill in the line I wanted to replace with the new line to replace it with.

I responded and said it would be impossible for me to fill out that template, as I had revised the entire manuscript, and needed the entire book reformatted and revised.

To which she responded and sadly told me that I wouldn't be able to do that in the post-publication revision--I would need to order another package.

I quickly asked if I would be able to remove the existing version from print and make sure it was no longer available, and she said yes, as soon as my new book was ready we could get rid of the old one.

However.

Having the old The Quest of Dai: The Eroe available and out there does not make me feel good. I don't mind paying the package price to have it replaced--that's fair. They have to do the work all over again. But what worries me is having to get a new ISBN for a book of the very same title, because that means the old book still exists. The old book is still out there. The old book will still be SOMEWHERE. Can they guarantee it will disappear from Amazon? Or will it just say, "Not available"? Can I still use the same title?

I don't know. But I am definitely not ordering the package until I know for sure. Outskirts (they're so awesome!) credited my account with the money I had paid for the revisions package and said I could use it to purchase a package. I e-mailed my author rep/publishing team and asked them for some additional info. I'm not spending $1000/$600 until I know for sure that the book will be gone for good. (I'm not exactly sure what my other options are, but I'll think of something I guess?)

I'm not going to say it was depressing, but it was kind of a bummer. At least the Outskirts team is always insanely nice to work with.

Also--and this is kind of funny... I was actually about to purchase the package, and I couldn't make myself hit "confirm." I kept flipping back to the manuscript and reading and re-reading the first few pages. Panicking. Wondering if it was good enough. Asking myself if I was REALLY SURE this time.

Turns out I wasn't, because that was when I e-mailed the publishing team.

And now I'm going to go read the manuscript one more time. Because I can't let go.

Site Redesign? I Think So!

2011-05-31T19:14:00.000-07:00

So, as we all know, I am horribly, horribly lazy.

I ended up letting my domains, www.vivian-marie.com and www.thequestofdai.com, expire about a month ago. As luck would have it, I was still able to get the domains back (for a "nominal" fee), and now the site is back up! YAY!

However. That being said... I still prefer the flexibility Blogger offers in terms of layout and text. So until I get my book covers and back cover text fully baked and finalized, I'll be keeping those pages/links pointing here. Then I'll be updating the website and pointing the links there. (Right now the website points here!)

BUT--new feature you've got to check out! In the upper right hand corner of this blog is a link to a page called "Stories." (It's also featured on the website.) I'll be going through and posting some original stories, like I had up on the old site. Right now the only one up is the vaguely-dystopian one I wrote--and still would like to turn into a full-length book some day. But I plan on adding the stories that I love and could never turn into actual books (for reasons such as unbelievability, length, etc.). I haven't decided if I'll use FictionPress for this yet or not--some of them are way too long to post on one page. And I'm pretty sure they need an edit or two before they go up. But they are coming!

So! Let me know what you think of the new site! (And the story!)

Manga Monday! Boys Over Flowers

2011-05-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

Title: Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango)
Author: Yoko Kamio
Price: $9.99/book
Books in series: 37 (37!!!!)
Get it at Amazon or wherever Viz is sold! (Or try to buy it boxed at eBay!)

Description (from Wikipedia, to give you more info): Makino Tsukushi, a working-class girl, attends an elite school called Eitoku Academy, populated by children and older youths from rich, high-society families. She is the "weed" of the school, surrounded by all the rich kids, including the "Flower Four" (F4). The F4 leader and son of the wealthiest, most powerful family in Japan, Domyouji Tsukasa, takes an interest in Tsukushi, because she is the only girl at Eitoku who does not fawn over him. However, his hot-headed nature and bullying ways are originally a major turn-off for Tsukushi, who has her sights set on someone else (Hanazawa Rui).

The violinist Hanazawa Rui, Tsukasa's best friend, becomes Tsukushi's first serious romantic interest. He is a quiet and cool guy, but he has a soft spot for his close friend and Tsukushi's idol, the model Todou Shizuka, whom he harbored feelings for since childhood. His character is a bit complex, and always has changing feelings for Tsukushi, but above all cares about her a lot.

Over the course of the series, however, Tsukushi's feelings evolve, and she begins to appreciate the degree of change that occurred in Tsukasa once he fell in love with her. He becomes fiercely loyal to Tsukushi and believes in her beyond all doubt, and slowly gets her to see him in a different light. The physical obstacles and emotional challenges of their rocky high-school courtship form the basis of the story. Other themes include Tsukushi's attempt to fit in at the school, the problems of her family's lifestyle and income, and the decadent lifestyle of upper-class Japanese girls.

Why you want this manga: It is the best-selling manga of all time in Japan. It's been adapted into 5 television series. It had its own anime. It even had a movie made! But mostly--because it's a love story full of twists and turns, likable characters you love and hate at various times, and plot twists aplenty! One minute you love Rui. Then you love Tsukasa. Then you love Rui. Then you love Tsukasa. Soon you're as confused as Makino, experiencing the agony with her as she tries to sort through her feelings for the two--all while still trying to deal with bills piling up, being in an elitist rich school she can't really afford to be in, and being harassed by members of the student body. Enemies become friends, friends become enemies, and no one is ever really all-bad in this epic tale of love and friendship.

And, if you like the manga, you absolutely have to check out the live Japanese adaptation. I'm not kidding. I have never, ever cried so much in my entire life. Ever. Ever. And at the end of the day, it was all worth it. (But don't watch the Japanese anime--it kinda sucks. Total opposite of Love Com--Lovely Complex!)

The 5W1H Rule

2011-05-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

I've talked about this book before, but I think it's worth talking about again.

It's called Shoujo Manga Techniques - Writing the Story.

It details out, in explicit detail, as a writer, how to write a story. It's done in comic form, so if you like mangas, it's definitely worth checking out.

Chapter one begins with teaching (in a very entertaining way!) the 5W1H Rule. We know it as "Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How." They refer to these as "scenes," and teach you how to compile scenes into an entire story. (This is the most simplistic of their writing techniques.) They also give a nice little sentence about the questions you're answering, which I will share with you.

Who: Explain who your main character is.
When: When is the story happening? Morning, afternoon, night? Today, yesterday, a year ago?
Where: Where is the story taking place? Beside a building, inside a coffee shop, in a real world or a made up one?
Do What: What do the characters (main characters) do in the story.
Why: Why are the characters (main characters) doing this?
How did it go: Explain what happened due to the character's (main character's) actions.

I was thinking about this earlier today, and all the LJ communities out there for writing prompts. I've always loved pictures, especially of houses, gates, nature, etc., because those types of things inspire me.

So I decided to write and share a scene with all of you!

Step one: Went to LiveJournal. (You can use Google!)
Step two: Typed in, "prompts". (I started with "writing prompts" and didn't find anything I liked.)
Step three: Found a community that looked interesting. (You can use a website.)
Step four: Found a picture I liked. (Find one that suits your tastes!)
Step five: Post picture, begin thinking. (Or write the first idea that comes into your head, which is what I did!)

Who: A boy in love.
When: Early in the morning before school.
Where: On the girl's front porch.
Do What: Wrote her a note so she would see it when she went for a morning run.
Why: Because he wants to see her.
How Did It Go: She brought it inside and cried.

She opened her front door, letting the cool, brisk morning air wash over her, soothing her swollen eyes. She couldn't remember the last time she had cried so much. She had even fallen asleep with the tissue box in her arms, clinging to it instead of her favorite stuffed teddy bear.

She closed the door behind her, her sneaker colliding against something that went skidding along the porch. Startled, she looked down, following the trail from her foot to an object now-lying near the top of the stair, teetering precariously on the edge.

Her heart raced in her chest as she saw the dark blue notebook he always carried around with him, darting a quick look around to see if he was nearby, watching her. Seeing no one, she slowly crossed the few steps, kneeling down to retrieve the book. She gently pulled open the cover, cold from the hours outside, and flipped through all of the sketches he had so skillfully drawn on the white pages.

But why had he left her this? Why, after she had so stupidly opened her mouth and told him exactly what he didn't want to hear, did he leave her his most prized possession?

Her breath caught in her throat as the careful sketches turned into big blocked letters, inked in his familiar handwriting. Something you said, it said on one page, kept me up all night, it said on the other.

She felt tears well up in her eyes, looking around once more for him. But she was alone in the early morning hours, the street deserted except for the birds overheard and the neighbor's cat running along the grass. She slowly turned the page, her tears sliding down her cheeks as she read the next sentence. But I still love you.

She rushed back into the house, clutching the notebook to her. She ran up the stairs to her bedroom, hugging the notebook against her chest as she threw herself onto her bed.

And there she sobbed.

***

Now, I have no idea where I would take this... I probably wouldn't even really write it that way if I were writing a full story. But if I was going to, and I was struck with writer's block, I'd just go get a new picture and start all over again.

See how easy and cool that writing technique is? I highly recommend it if you're stumped for ideas (and stories!). I prefer pictures for this type of technique, but you can use any sort of prompt you want. You can even use Runaway_Tales prompts! ;)

Good luck, and happy writing!

P.S. Store these ideas ("scenes") in your idea journal! You'll thank me later!

Strapped For Ideas? Runaway_Tales Can Save You!

2011-05-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

There is a LJ (LiveJournal) community that I love.

At Runaway_Tales, writers and readers from all genres and walks of life join the community, and pick a flavor bunny. (That's right--a bunny!) You can choose up to three at a time.

Within those flavors, and there are an insane amount of them, are prompts. Thousands and thousands of writing prompts, right at your fingertips.

The goal is simple--you use at least one prompt in every post for an original story. They also have "toppings" you can use, a way to spice-up your prompts. You don't need to use the prompts in order. You don't need to write the story in order. You just write the basis (idea) of your story in an intro post, introduce your characters, and start writing.

I wrote one story for this community a couple of years ago. I picked a flavor, and me-being-me, wrote the story from start-to-finish, reorganizing the prompts in my list in a way that made the story flow. (To this day, it remains one of my favorite "short" stories, and if I can figure out how, I might expand it into a novel. It's got a vague dystopian-feel to it.)

The nice thing about the community is that you don't get criticism unless you ask for it. One of the requests when you join is that you read other people's stories, and comment on them, just to aid the community feel and support your fellow writers. But there's no order to do so.

And did I mention the prompts? Lists and lists of ideas, right in front of you.

If you're not a member of LJ, you can still check it out. The community is open. And I highly recommend you give it a shot. Post your stories. Get feedback. Use the prompts provided. I can't tell you how many times I've used those prompts to get me through writer's block.

You won't be sorry.

Why You Need an Editor - Part II

2011-05-26T18:48:00.000-07:00

This morning I read an e-mail from the woman I now call my editor. (Yes, you're now my editor. There. I said it.)

I was feeling pretty good about The Eroe, all things considered... I was sure she would have some feedback about it, but all-in-all, I had tried to remember what she had told me about The Wrong Path, and tried to keep that in the back of my mind as I was redrafting The Eroe. So when I sent it to her, I was petrified (because as we all know, The Quest of Dai is my baby!), but I was also feeling pretty confident.

Imagine my surprise when I get an e-mail back from her, saying she really enjoyed the story--but the first twenty pages were dreadfully boring and had to go.

For a few minutes, I read and re-read the e-mail. I thought about what was in the first twenty pages. I thought about how much mythology I had prepped in those twenty pages. I thought about how important those twenty pages were not for the first book, really, but for the second and third. I thought about a lot of things in those few minutes.

And once the sting wore off (and it wasn't as bad as it was the last time I received editing feedback--apparently you really do get used to it!) I started thinking. And then I thought some more. And then I thought even more. And finally I text messaged my husband and said, "I don't know what the hell I'm going to do."

I finally called him during a slow period at work, and together we hashed out my editor's (there! I said it again!) feedback and what I could do to fix the problems. I couldn't really drop the whole storyline, I pointed out to my husband, but what was the point of having it if no one could even read through the twenty pages to get to the rest of the book?

So we chatted some more, which was mostly me talking and telling him what I couldn't do, and talking about how I had to have certain key scenes, and while sure, I could tighten this or that up, I just couldn't lose--

"But maybe I could..." I started excitedly, quickly rambling off the idea to my husband. And then, even more excited, I said, "Or what if I...?"

"That would work," he assured me enthusiastically.

"That's so great!" I caroled. I could almost feel my eyes shining. "It would be so exciting to start out this way. And then I could move it into this scene, and tighten up the scene!"

He laughed, and told me they were all great ideas. (He's such a good husband.) I quickly went back to work and wrote my editor an e-mail. I thanked her for her feedback and telling me exactly what I needed to hear, and then asked what I thought was a rather crucial question: "Where was it that you thought it started to pick up?"

Her answer, I'm not going to lie, caught me completely by surprise.

Later, as I was driving home to work, I mused over this with my husband. "She said it didn't pick up until there," I said thoughtfully. "But there are a lot of scenes before that one that are really important. I can't really take those out without ruining the story. I could tighten them up," I continued, thinking back on her feedback. "If I tighten up the scenes, and then--OH!" I gaped at the back of the car in front of me. "I could add in another scene in there, which would add a little more interest like she was talking about, and give a little more background."

"That sounds good," he told me, laughing.

"This is great!" I declared cheerfully, ecstatic. I couldn't wait to get home to work on the manuscript.

(Of course, it should be noted here that I'm currently in the middle of another WIP, and I'm currently monitoring work for a giant launch we're doing today. So sadly, not the best day to try working on editing a manuscript.)

That being said--you need an editor. You need someone to bounce ideas off of. You need someone who cares about you enough to be brutally honest in their feedback--because it's really just got the end-goal of making your story better. I never, ever would have considered ripping out the first twenty pages of my book until today. It had never occurred to me they were boring. I was using them to set a scene--to showcase the difference between Dai in her world and Dai in the new world. And, of course, to introduce the reader to some stuff they wouldn't realize was important until later.

But hearing it from another point of view, I get it. I see what I can do differently. I see a way to improve. And I guarantee, if you let an editor have their hands on your manuscript, you will, too.

Trust me--you won't be sorry!

Manga Monday!

2011-05-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

...even though it's Tuesday. I know. I know. My schedule is all outta sorts. Sorry!!

I should be working on my latest story, but instead I bring you my latest choice in manga that you should be reading!

Title: Love Com (Lovely Complex)
Author: Aya Nakahara
Price: $8.99/book (17!!! volumes)
Get it at Amazon.com or bookstores where you can buy Viz manga!

Description: Risa Koizumi is the tallest girl in class, and the last thing she wants is the humiliation of standing next to Atsushi Otoni, the shortest guy. Fate and the whole school have other ideas, and the two find themselves cast as the unwilling stars of a bizarre romantic comedy duo. Rather than bow to the inevitable, Risa and Atsushi join forces to pursue their true objects of affection. But in the quest for love, will their budding friendship become something more complex?

Why you must own this manga: Because it is the best. manga. ever. Seriously!!! Okay, I know I say that about all the mangas I feature, but this manga will make you laugh out loud--and who laughs out loud when they're reading a book, seriously?--cry, and it will literally make your heart ache in ways you didn't even know it could. Those budding first feelings of love make you wish to be a teenager all over again despite everything you went through, just to see if you could have a romance this perfect--and this perfectly horrible. THIS IS NO TYPICAL SHOUJO MANGA HERE, GUYS! I'm not saying it's not shoujo, 'cause, it is in the biggest way possible. It's all about the relationships and romance between the characters. But these are not your typical characters. You'll find yourself desperately flipping to the next page to find out if the character pulls through in the end, because your heart just won't be able to take anymore. I can't recommend this enough.

Incidentally, if you pick this up and enjoy it (and you will if you do!), there's an anime. And it is JUST AS GOOD. But avoid the live action adaptation. It's painful.

Working Backwards

2011-05-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

So, I recently discovered that in writing, I work best when I work backwards.

I started working on a story, and I started at the beginning, and I floundered (a LOT) trying to figure out where I was going to go with it. I wrote a few paragraphs and stopped. I wrote a few more, and then stopped. I stared at my screen. I surfed the internet. I tried to write a few paragraphs. I deleted everything I had written.

The next day, I was driving to work, talking to my husband on my phone, and breaking story with him.

"I just don't know what to do," I complained unhappily. "I don't know where to take it."

"What about this?" he suggested, giving me a plot idea.

"That's a really good idea!" I agreed enthusiastically, eager to get home and start writing. But that night, I wrote one page and stopped again. Unhappy, the next morning we were again on our way to work and I was once again complaining about my writer's block.

"I'm just not that excited about it," I complained. "I really like the plot and the idea, but I just... I'm just not sure what to do with it." I sighed. "I think I work best when I work backwards. Like with The Quest of Dai. I already knew how that was going to end. So I had the plot and the ending, and I just had to figure out how to get to the end with the plot I had in place."

And then I paused, staring out my windshield. "That's it," I breathed. "I just need to figure out the ending to my story!"

My husband laughed. "I'm pretty sure that's what you said the last time this happened, too," he teased.

"Shut up," I retorted. Then we went on working on the end of the story together.

That night, when I got home, I sat down at my computer and opened a Notepad, quickly typing out a couple of lines about how the story was going to end. Not a lot--just a few lines. (If I draft too much, I lose interest. It's as much of a discovery for me as the reader when I write.) Then I went to my Word doc and began writing with renewed zeal.

Does anyone else find it's easier to have the beginning and the end, and then fill in the middle? Or is it easiest to just start at the beginning and work your way toward the end? (Or are you one of those outliner-types? I really wish I could outline. Would save me a lot of re-writes later...)

FictionPress

2011-05-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else ever heard of FictionPress?

I was posting my latest story to ff.net recently and I saw this listing for FictionPress.com. It was really more of a warning: "Fanfiction.net is for fanfiction only--original stories should be posted at our sister site, FictionPress.com," or something like that.

Curious, I went to check out this FictionPress site. I don't know if I can say I was super impressed with any of the writing there, but it got me thinking... Are there any other sites out there that allow you to post chapter-by-chapter stories/books?

If so, I think I'd kinda dig that. It's one reason I enjoyed the Runaway_Tales LiveJournal Community so much. (Plus, all the prompts. And the bunnies. God I love those bunnies.) My only problem is I'm so particular in the type of stuff I like to read, I didn't like not commenting on other people's stuff but I didn't really want to read anything not-of-my-interest, either.

I know of booksie and scribd, but both of those are for completed books. And Smashwords, but again, for completed books. I've got some works that will likely never get published (they're just not strong enough/not long enough/not realistic enough) but that doesn't mean I don't want to share them.

I did a quick search, but came up empty. Any ideas?

Moving... Where?!

2011-05-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

After a long day at work that started with a meeting at 8:00 that went all the way until 5:00 when I finally signed off so I could head to a work/team-party-happy hour for a couple of hours, I finally got home at around 7:30. I was tired. My feet hurt. I was itching to get out of my work clothes. I wanted to get on my computer and check my e-mail.

And en-route to the computer room, my phone rings. I groaned inwardly, trudging back to the hallway where my phone was, and saw it was my sister.

"Hey," I greeted her, trying to mask the exhaustion in my voice.

"Hi," she greeted back. "You're--are you--hey, um... So you know... Do you have a minute?"

I paused at the flustered, halted words, uneasily sinking into my computer chair. "Sure," I agreed slowly. "What's up?"

"Well," she began, in her quick, excited ramble. "You know I'm in Juno, right?"

Of course I knew she was in Juno. She had been terribly excited about being flown out to Alaska for a job interview all throughout brunch on Sunday. "Yes," I agreed. "For your job interview, right?"

"Right!" she confirmed eagerly, as if relieved I had remembered. She went on quickly. "They offered me the job!" She proceeded to tell me, without barely pausing for breath and in a shaking voice that made me wonder if she was hyperventilating and going to pass out in the airport, that they had offered her more than she had expected in pay, had offered to pay her moving expenses, were offering her a house to live in for a few months while she found somewhere to live, and oh-by-the-way, they wanted her to start tomorrow. "And I just don't know what to do," she finished, her voice trembling and quivering with emotion. "I just... I just don't..." She laughed, almost hysterically. "I don't know what to do."

I stared at my computer screen, wide-eyed, taking deep breaths as if to compensate for the ones she wasn't taking. "Well," I began slowly, "start packing?"

She laughed, a mixture of amusement and horror echoing through the phone at me. I blinked at my screen, trying to figure out what to do. Trying to channel my father, who had always sat there silent and calm, a steady rock whenever I had approached him in emotional states.

"I told them I couldn't commit to anything," she told me, her voice still shaking. "It's... It's so far away. And... it's all happening so fast. I just... I don't know what to do."

I must have heard, "I don't know what to do," at least fifteen times in our ten-fifteen minute conversation.

She eventually hung up to board her plane, and I turned to fill my husband in on the most recent turn of events. I then called home to check on my parents and make sure my mom, who is exceptionally close with my sister, was okay. (She was.)

So, there you go. My sister, who never believed she would ever get the job, and who always dreamed of living in Alaska, has killed two birds with one stone and achieved the impossible on two accounts.

And I say, good for you, dear sister. Congratulations!

Eye Surgery - Take Two!

2011-05-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

A few years back I had a DCR--that's a fancy way of saying I had a blocked tear duct, and it caused my right eye to look like I was in a constant state of emotional turmoil. Tears streamed from it continuously. I carried a tissue with me wherever I went, and if I had been foolish enough to put on makeup in the morning, in the evening my left eye would be lined and shadowed, and my right eye as bare as it had been when I'd woken up that morning.

So I'd undergone surgery, and I blogged extensively about it and my recovery (complete with my incredibly attractive post-surgery photos!) on my DCR blog. I was only supposed to have the plastic tube in my eye, called a stint if you want to sound really fancy, for a few months, no more than six, but being the lazy person that I am, I left it in for nearly a year.

For months, I was blissfully tear and stint free. I still had, and have, a scar from the surgery (though the doctor promised it wouldn't scar...), and I was comforted in the knowledge the chances of my eye ever tearing up again were minimal at best. "And if it does ever happen again," the doctor assured me, "you just come back to see me and it's a really easy procedure to fix it."

Sweet, I thought, happily skipping on my merry little way. Procedures were easy. I'd had several "procedures" for the blocked tear duct before I'd finally had to undergo the knife. They had pumped me full of drugs, then stuck a long needle in my eye and forced saline solution through my tear ducts to "clear the blockage." (How attractive does that sound? You can imagine how much I love having to tell people in real life about this...)

So when a couple of months ago, my eye started watering more than normal, I told myself, It's just your imagination. Don't worry about it. Then, as the watering got worse, I thought, It'll go away. Relax. Then, when it didn't stop and I ended up crying off all of my right eye makeup one night while out with friends, I stared unhappily at myself in the mirror and my odd-looking face and grimly realized, It's happening again.

I called the doctor and made an appointment to see him. My eye had stopped tearing as much, and I thought, It's not so bad. It's just a procedure. In and out.

The doctor gently slid a freakishly long blunt needle down my tear-duct (and let me tell you, there's nothing quite like having a long, flexible, freakishly long needle sticking out of you RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR EYE) and depressed on the syringe to squirt water into the duct.

It shot right back out at him.

"Okay," he said to me, rather cheerfully. He pulled the syringe out of my eye and tossed it away, going to his table to start scribbling in his folder. "Sometimes what happens is people heal too well after the DCR. The hole that we made in your nose closed up. So it's a really simple surgery--we do it downstairs--and we go in through your nose with a tiny little camera--it's very high tech--and a really little needle, and we open it back up. Then we put in some anti-scarring stuff, and you're good to go. It's called a CDCR."

I stared at him, sickened horror coming over me. Not a simple procedure. Back downstairs, where they do their surgeries. Not a quick in-and-out thing. They were going to put me under again. Knock me out.

Surgery.

But, I thought, resigned, at least they weren't going to cut me open again. So I nodded and headed out.

Over the next week, a dull, throbbing pain started to develop in the small space between my inner eye and my nose. Right over my tear duct. At first I thought I had been pressing it too much, but the pain increased every day.

Then the pain in my nose started.

When I had woken up from surgery after the DCR, I remember pressing my finger against the right side of my nose, a throbbing pressure concentrated in one tiny spot that seemed to bleed into the surrounding area making my entire face hurt. The nurse told me I was pressing right where they had drilled into my cartilage. Over the next few days, the pain had only gotten worse, and I'd actually had to go back because the pain had spread to the side of my face and my temple and even into the back of my head.

And this was the exact same pain.

I wondered if I had ruptured something. If I had another tear stone (yes, apparently I had a tear stone in my duct when he opened me up). I wondered if somehow, the new canal he had made had gotten torn apart.

But as the days wore on and the pressure and pain became more intense, and just moving my eye or making facial gestures hurt, I realized it wasn't anything so simple. The while of my eye, when I looked to my right, exposing the area usually hidden by my tear duct, was blood shot and red, horribly irritated and inflamed. The pressure on my nose and on my eye was starting to become excrutiating.

I had an infection.

When I called the doctor to tell him about it, nearly in tears, to my dismay they weren't as surprised as I had hoped they would be by my symptoms. They called in a prescription of painkillers and antibiotic eyedrops (yes, they're putting eyedrops into an eye that won't stop pouring liquid--go figure) and my loving husband went and picked them up for me today. I have an appointment to see the doctor on Tuesday.

Hopefully this just means they'll schedule my surgery sooner...

TBR List!

2011-05-18T20:53:00.001-07:00

It's that time again! I even created a page for it since there are SO MANY on my list. (You can see it up above, under "Book Finds!") It's the TBR List!

I recently (as in, yesterday!) discovered this website, called Book Blogs. It's a big community of book bloggers wanting to share their blogs with everyone else. So I was clicking around in the YA forum, and I found some bloggers who seemed like they would be interesting, nice people. And what did I find? Books to read!!

(I should say here I was trying to limit my "Book Finds!" page to Indie reads, for purely selfish reasons, so these will not be going on the "Book Finds!" page. But I will add a TBR tag to the TBR posts in case you ever want to find these books again. 'cause I know you're just dying to remember what I put on my TBR list...)

Our first two books were found at mysteriousbooks.

Title: Possession
Author: Elana Johnson

Description: Vi knows the Rule: Girls don't walk with boys, and they never even think about kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the Rules more than Zenn...and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi's future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined to think for herself.

But the Thinkers are unusually persuasive, and they're set on convincing Vi to become one of them...starting by brainwashing Zenn. Vi can't leave Zenn in the Thinkers' hands, but she's wary of joining the rebellion, especially since that means teaming up with Jag. Jag is egotistical, charismatic, and dangerous--everything Zenn's not. Vi can't quite trust Jag and can't quite resist him, but she also can't give up on Zenn.

This is a game of control or be controlled. And Vi has no choice but to play.

Thoughts: I love dystopian novels. I don't know what it is about them. Something about the world as it could be? And this just looks too fascinating to pass up. Almost like a cross between our history (girls are to be seen and not heard, and don't even think about touching boys?) and what might have happened if we hadn't shifted the pendulum the other way. Too bad it doesn't come out until June. Good thing June is just around the corner.

__________________________________

Title: Hereafter
Author: Tara Hudson

Description: Can there truly be love after death?

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life—or her actual death—she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.

Thrilling and evocative, with moments of pure pleasure, Hereafter is a sensation you won't want to miss.

Thoughts: It's a love story. I love a good love story. And the opening sentence really caught my eye. Then the girl knowing she's dead but not knowing anything about herself sounded refreshing and intriguing to me. So I knew I had to pick this up. Just keep telling yourself: June is coming. June is coming. June is coming...

__________________________________

Our next book was discovered over at Curled Up with Books. I initially started skimming by the book, but then I saw the review she had posted about it. She wrote, "Love is a disease?! Creative. Interesting." I was hooked immediately and scrolled right back up to see what the book was all about. Now I have to have it. Now.

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver

Description: Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

Why I Picked It Up: Dystopian. I must be in the mood. But seriously... Tell me this book doesn't sound incredible! Love as a disease? Really? How original is that? Plus--love story. I have to read this.

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This one I found over at Bonnie Lamer's blog.

Title: Shelter (Blood Haze: Book One)
Author: Tara Shuler

Description: Two guys, one girl, and two dark secrets that threaten to tear her world apart.

Alice Wright is a young vampire going to high school for the first time at the age of seventeen at the behest of her eccentric mother. In many ways, she's more afraid of the human students than they would be of her.

She feels lost and awkward in human society, but she soon develops a strong bond with the cousin of one of her human classmates, nineteen year old Kai. He is beautiful, but somewhat of an enigma. She discovers a dark secret in Kai's life, and she instantly wants to shelter him from the pain that has tormented him all his life.

Then she meets Maksim Augustine, the incredibly gorgeous guy who seems more like he should be a model than a high school student. She is overwhelmingly attracted to him physically, but her love for Kai causes her to continually push him away. Eventually, she discovers a frightening secret about Max, too.

But Max's secret threatens to destroy everything...

Why I Picked It Up: I love vampires. I know, I know. But I do. And I love the name Kai, 'cause I totally used it in one of my stories. And I find the idea of a vampire afraid of humans intriguing.

The Quest of Dai: The Eroe - NEW COVER and Blurb!

2011-05-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

When I first wrote The Quest of Dai: The Eroe and was preparing to publish it, Outskirts Press gave me access to this gigantic website with thousands and thousands of photos, and told me, "Pick one for your cover." There were standard template layouts, and thinking they would have a flat background color with an image set in the middle, I chose a photo of trees (after all, a good deal of the story was her journey through the forest).

Now, I didn't just pick any photo of trees in a forest... I poured over those photos for hours. I compared one to another. I critiqued the lighting on one. I agonized over the ground on another. I studied every detail of those photos. And then I found the perfect shot and said, "Yes. This is it."

When I saw the cover, I squealed in excitement. To say I loved it would be an understatement. And yet, unfortunately, it turns out I was the only one who felt that way about the cover. "It's kinda boring," I was told, and, "It doesn't really stand out."

I was crushed. Especially since I was stuck with it. But with the addition of Kindle and epubbing, that's not the case anymore! Now I have a new cover, at least for the ebook version, and I'm going to unveil it here!

As for the blurb... Well, I'm still tweaking it, but if you happen to want to offer any suggestions, I'm willing to listen!

To return home, she just has to end a war…

The ancient prophecies foretold of her coming. A girl not of their world. A girl who would save them all. A girl blessed by Ai. The oracle says Dai Gold is that girl.

Determined to return home, Dai will do whatever it takes to defeat the sinister darkness she knows as the Malo and help her new friends, the Eroe. But the longer Dai is in their world, the more she finds herself falling in love with it… and with one of the Eroe. Westly Dante is cold, dangerous, and fiercely protective of Dai. And when the Malo attack, taking the Eroe with them, he is all Dai has left.

In this strange new world, Dai discovers more than her destiny. She discovers her past.

And just how twisted the threads of fate are.

_______________________________

So... thoughts? Suggestions? Feedback?

Manga Monday! MARS

2011-05-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

Title: MARS
Author: Fuyumi Soryo
Available: Amazon and other retailers carrying Tokyopop
Price: $9.99 per book--and there are 15 in the series (with an extra book I don't recommend called Horse With No Name).

Description: Popular Rei and shy Kira are worlds apart, until one fateful day brings them together. Rei stumbles upon Kira in the harassing hands of her sleazy art teacher and saves the quiet girl from his clutches. And when the jock plants a kiss on a statue of Mars in the studio, Kira finds herself drawn in and even summons up the nerve to ask him to model for her but problems already lurk on the horizon. Vicious upperclassman Harumi has had her sights set on Rei for a long time, and is not about to let go now. One of the most popular teen girl manga series in Japan, Mars is a drama that will meet the demand of the growing female comic-reading market.

My thoughts: I don't remember why I picked this book up all those years ago. I actually think it might have been my sister who did and let me read the first five or ten she had. This was the first manga by Tokyopop I ever picked up. But five (or was it ten?) books in, I knew I had to get the rest. I immediately drove to the store and bought the rest of the series. Needless to say--it's absolutely one of my favorites of all time. Rei is a playboy and a little overwhelming at times, and Kira is so painfully shy it's almost hard to relate to her at times, and yet despite it all, you can't help but love these characters. You can't help love watching them grow as individuals and as a couple. You cheer for Rei, you cheer for Kira, and you suffer and cry with them when Rei's twisted, dark past catches up with them and threatens to tear them apart. It's a compelling, at times dark, read, but it's absolutely worth it. I can't recommend the series enough! So go get it!

Volunteer Editors!

2011-05-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, so, I think I'm finally ready to part with The Quest of Dai: The Eroe. I say that because I just read the whole thing (again!) and changed about twenty words in the entire document. Maybe that's me being lazy, but I'm kind of hoping it means it's just done.

Now, I was tempted to e-mail the two lovely ladies who edited The Wrong Path for me, because they were INSANELY HELPFUL on The Wrong Path, but I thought that would be presumptuous. So instead I'm just going to post a blog about asking for a volunteer.

Note: Even if you read the book before, I'll tell you--the main plot is the same. The rest of it? Not so much.

So... any takers? Send an e-mail or leave a comment! vivianmarieaubinduparis at gmail dot com!

Life: Overwhelming!

2011-05-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

An update! No, I haven't forgotten about my blog. Life just got a little crazy. But rather than bore you with the details (because really, who cares?) I thought I'd just give you some updates! :)

We still don't have a couch. I know. I find it hard to be true, too. But we don't.
For Mother's Day, we made seven--SEVEN--dishes. Including cinnamon-roll french toast, farmhouse hash, and coffee cake. (It was a full day in the kitchen. Holy cow...)
The Quest of Dai: The Eroe is still in revision. That's why The Wrong Path, which is fully complete, isn't out. I know, I suck. But I can't release one without the other, can I?
My job wants us to work for the next two weeks straight, and over Memorial Day Weekend. UGH.
I need to go back in for eye surgery. It's a follow-up post-op to my surgery over a year ago. Apparently I'm one of the lucky few who "healed too well" and now I need to go back in. Awesome. Don't know when it's supposed to be yet, though.
Two words: DELENA KISS. Not as exciting as I had hoped (c'mon, we ALL knew it was coming, didn't we?) but it was still there. Elena still kissed Damon. And he thanked her. It was emotional. But I'll admit--I melted more at the beginning of the episode when he asked for her forgiveness and accepted that she couldn't forgive him just yet, even though he was dying. And I was pretty stoked Katherine showed up with his cure, too. Good for her!
I started playing WoW again after taking a super long break to write all those months ago. (Part of why my blog hasn't been updated much...) My main is now pretty much raid-ready, and my alt is on its way. WHOO!
Don't let the Safeway grocery delivery pick out vegetables for you. And be cautious what meat you ask them to get, too. I had a steak show up with brown spots and carrots show up with giant gashes in them. *sigh* But my yellow and green onions were totally fine. My celery was a little brown. My ground beef was perfect. (I should note this is the only way we get groceries now.)
I haven't touched my TBR list. At all. I really, really suck.
Every day this week I have gotten 12 hours of sleep per night except one. I don't know if I'm fighting off a cold or just super tired after work. Maybe a little bit of both. But it's been wake up, go to work, come home, eat, sleep, and repeat. Lame!

So... Any updates you guys want to share with me?

Manga Monday! The Devil Does Exist

2011-04-04T22:06:00.000-07:00

[Shamelessly stolen from Books By Their Cover.]

Title: The Devil Does Exist
Author: Mitsuba Takanashi
Available: Amazon and other retailers carrying CMX
Price: EXPENSIVE! Mangas are usually $9.99 each book. But worth it? Yes.

Description: Kayano has a crush on basketball captain Yuichi, but when she tries to give him a love letter, school bully Takeru intercepts it. Of course, Kayano is mortified, and her despair deepens when her mother announces that she's engaged to Takeru's father, making the tormenter her brother. Takeru's father is the school principal, so he's used to getting everything he wants, and even the teachers are afraid of him. Takeru's a manipulator, arranging things so that he's on the basketball team along with Yuichi, and Kayano is the team manager, forced into proximity with both of them. Both boys pressure and confuse Kayano, and at times, it seems like she's less a character and more a prize.

My thoughts: This is one of my favorite mangas of all time. I have all 11 books sitting on my shelf right beside me within easy reach, because sometimes I just like to pick it up and re-read it for fun. I love Kayano, who is your typical "shoujo" (that would be the "girly-teen-romance") manga character, but she's got a bit of inner strength to her that I really like, despite her first appearances at "weakness." And don't even get me started on Takeru, who to this day remains one of my favorite guys of all time. Love-love-love Takeru. He's just perfect in every way. There is depth to these characters, and a great storyline with a twisty plot that will leave you flipping pages until 3:00 A.M.... Even if you've read the books more than once!

Recommended: You mean you haven't bought it already?? The Amazon link will take you right to the books...

Guest Blog: Judging A Book By Its Cover

2011-03-31T18:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the lovely Amanda, we have a guest blog this week titled, "Judging A Book By Its Cover." Thanks, Amanda! <3

Judging A Book By Its Cover

Amanda

I confess. I go to the bookstore and the first book I pick up will be one with a cool cover. Then I flip it over to read the teaser, and then I open it up to read the first page. If it still has my interest, it goes in my basket. As a new mom, my “me time” is very limited- I just don’t have the time to waste on a crap book.

I must admit I’m a sucker for reader’s reviews. Most of my book shopping lately has been online. I appreciate when someone takes the time to give their opinion on a book I’m contemplating purchasing:

“Great book overall. Started slow but I fell in love with the characters.”
Sold. They even gave me a great pointer- get over the dry bits in the beginning and come out smiling!
“Don’t waste your time.”
Perfect! Thank you, anonymous reader!!!

These quick little reviews are so helpful when I’m picking out books from my library or purchasing books for my ereader. It saves me a ton of time and money!!

More often than not, I will enjoy a certain book and upon opening up my goodreads account and seeing what other’s had to say about it, I will notice someone saying it was similar to “_____” book. I’ll scratch my head and realize I never read “________” so then I have to go find that book and so on and so forth. This is how I recently came to read “The Giver” (which is a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE book and I will never recommend it to ANYONE. EVER. I had nightmares for DAYS. Have I made my point? Good. We can move on.). I think this is a great way to discover more books in a similar genre that you may have really enjoyed, but don’t know how to go about finding others like it.

I can be swayed into almost any genre, but I tend to shy away from anything claiming to be “the next great American novel”. Spare me. Good for you, author who thinks the world needs to be taken more seriously. I’m going to sit in the corner and have a romance with a studly 19 year old guy who thinks it’s “so complicated” to juggle school, soccer practice AND his first girlfriend, thank you very much. I typically don’t fall for the vampire shtick- but I had a friend totally GUSH over a series and insist I read at least the first book. Nine books later, and I’m biting my nails in anticipation of a new Sookie Stackhouse novel.

To ask me what my favorite books are would be just mean. On any given day it could be a thriller/mystery (I am sooooooo good at catching the bad guy!), a period book (especially about the Tudors- fascinating!), Young Adult (because there is a teenager stuck inside me who still views the world as limitless) and even the occasional Sci-Fi ditty (vampires, angels, you know- the cool stuff. But none of the “In a galaxy far, far away” business.)

Overall, I love to read. If a book comes highly recommended, I will devour it. I love getting to know a person through the type of books they enjoy. It is such an intimate thing- to share a great book with someone else. It touches you in such a personal way. My best advice would be to join a book club. It has been one of the more enlightening experiences for me. It has opened me up to a new world of genres and characters that I may have never gotten to know if it weren’t for the group of women who make up the club

One of my closest girlfriends came up with the idea to start a book club two and a half years ago. She wanted it to be fun and relaxed. We each invited a few fellow book-lovers and agreed on a meeting for the first Monday of each month. We take turns hosting. The hostess will have chosen her selection prior to last month’s meeting so that she could announce a month in advance what that month’s pick will be. This keeps it both fair and interesting- because if you don’t like “her” selection, you know you’ll get something else completely different next month! (And one HUGE perk is that we have added meals to our meetings- everyone brings a dish and we get to try new foods all the time… for example, Italian food for the book “Angels and Demons”… yummmm)

If you don’t know enough people (I’d say 4-5 would be sufficient) that would be interested in starting one up with you, check out craigslist or even http://bookclub.meetup.com/ to find an existing group that you can become a member of!

All in all, keep it simple. Don’t stress yourself out trying to read every Jane Austen, John Grisham or “Bestseller” before you die. Stick with what you know and like, but keep an open mind to what else is out there! If someone is passionate about a book, don’t disregard it just because it’s out of your normal comfort zone- you might surprise yourself with how much you could truly fall in love with a book if you just open it up and take a look.

Happy reading!

Manga Monday!

2011-03-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

[Shamelessly stolen from Books By Their Cover. Ironically, my first go at this is a manhwa, which is a Korean manga.]

Title: Peppermint
Author: Seo Eun Jin
Available: Amazon and other retailers carrying Tokyopop
Price: EXPENSIVE! Mangas are usually $9.99 each book. But worth it? Yes.

Description: What do you do when true love is just beyond your reach? Hey is a normal teenage girl who has a crush on the hot teen singer EZ. But whenever she tries to work up the nerve to confess her feeling toward him, EO always gets in the middle of things! Pop star EZ may never think of Hey as anything more than a fan...This is a charming romantic fantasy that shows you true love is where you least expect it!

My thoughts: I LOVE this manga! Normally I don't love manhwa's, but I chose this one to start with for a reason. It's full of great romance between likable characters, and a love triangle that just keeps tugging at your heart strings. And for those of you who like a little bit of a twist in your romance, the second part of the triangle is younger than the main girl--by several years! He has an extreme phobia of girls, which Hey slowly seems to cure him of without even trying. She's a strong girl (except around her crush, when she blushes and stammers adorably!) and you keep rooting for her until the end.

Recommended: Definitely. Read this manga! In fact, I think I might go read it again right now...

The Idea Journal

2011-03-27T00:46:00.000-07:00

I think I've written about this before, but it's so important I feel the need to write about it again.

The idea journal.

Every writer, or aspiring writer, should have an idea journal. (Yes, even you.) The idea journal is a little notebook, or twelve little notebooks, as long as you remember where they are, that you keep with you at all times so whenever you're struck with an idea for a story you can write it down.

Picture this: You're reading a book or watching a TV show, and a character says or does something and your imagination starts running. "That's not a bad idea," you say to yourself. "I'll have to remember that." But the next day, you don't, and you kick yourself for forgetting what could have been an awesome story.

That's where the idea journal comes in.

Yes, I'm not going to lie, the idea journal is a pain in the butt. A serious pain in the butt. To stop whatever you're doing so you can write something down is annoying. But you'll thank yourself later, sometimes years later, when you go back and you have that little gem of an idea that you can suddenly expound upon. Trust me on this one. The Wrong Path is a combination of me playing with character types and an idea I wrote down in my idea journal 10+ years ago. (Seriously!)

If you don't have an idea journal, get one. Get a notebook you love, because you're going to be carrying it with you everywhere. And, if you're super into technology, get an app on your phone that's like a diary app. Serves the same purpose! (Just make sure you print/save somewhere the ideas--never know when you're going to upgrade the phone and you don't want to lose your ideas, do you?)

Earlier today I got an idea and quickly jotted down in my journal this:

Idea:
Kids share connected dreams--what does it mean, and why does no one look like they do in real life?

What's it mean? Who knows? Where will it go? Who knows? The beauty of the idea journal! But maybe in a few years, you'll be seeing that book from me. And you can say you remember when I got the idea...

Comics Are Fun! And Wanna Guest Blog?

2011-03-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

I love gaming--did you know that? I do. Absolutely love it. In fact, in my upcoming book, one of my dedications is to an in-game friend of mine who made me something in-game. Am I a geek? Yes. Yes I am. But I still love gaming! <3

So to that end, I present you a comic I adore, called Ctrl+Alt+Del. Don't worry, you don't have to be a gamer to think it's funny!

Next: Anyone want to do a guest post? I've never done a guest post on my blog before, but I think it would be fun. I'm pretty much open to anything--writers-in-the-making who want to talk about what they're going through, readers who want to chat about what they like to read *coughMandacough*, writers who are already published *coughKatiecough*, writers who write articles for a side business *coughJanecough*, you name it! I don't know why I suddenly decided to do this--I just thought it would be fun. So if you're interested, leave me a comment or shoot me an e-mail at vivianmarieaubinduparis at gmail dot com.

The TBR List

2011-03-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

Ah, the lovely TBR list! I've got some awesome books in store, and I cannot WAIT to read them!

First up: the LOVELY Miss Katie Klein, author of The Guardian (which if you follow my blog you will know I absolutely loved) has a new book out! YAY! Omg, too excited for words. I was nearly giddy when I discovered the happy news.

Title: Cross My Heart
Author: Katie Klein
Price: $3.99
Get it on Amazon Kindle
Get it on Barnes & Noble Nook

True love can blossom in unexpected places. This is Jaden pretending not to notice. . . .

Jaden McEntyre and Parker Whalen are a wrong fit from the start. Jaden is driven and focused, Harvard Med School within reach. Parker has a past—a reputation—and the rumors about his mysterious habits abound. So there’s no reason why, when they're assigned to work together on a project in English, they should discover they have anything in common, or even like each other, and they definitely shouldn't be falling in love.

As they bond over Edith Wharton’s tragic novella, Ethan Frome, the “bad boy” vibe Parker plays begins to dissipate. Soon, Jaden finds herself shedding her own “good girl” image: sneaking around to be with him, confiding in him, and ultimately falling hard for this leather-wearing, motorcycle-driving loner who plays into the rebel stereotype.

Still, Jaden can't shake the feeling that there's more to Parker than he's letting on. He's hiding something from her, and discovering the truth means reconciling the Parker she's grown to love with the person he really is. Because it's possible that his life inside the classroom—everything Jaden knows—is one, massive lie.

CROSS MY HEART, told from Jaden's point of view, is a 76k-word/300-page contemporary romance for young adults. Bonus features include the official playlist and an interview with the author.

Why I want to read this:
1. I love Katie.
2. I also named a character Jaden. (Katie--we HAVE to stop doing this.) But my Jaden was a boy, oddly enough.
3. Hello, did you read the description?! It sounds EPIC. Bad-boy/good-girl? I'm a sucker for that! (Obviously... The Wrong Path was previously titled "The Waif and the Bad Boy.")
_____________________________________________

Title: Miya Black, Pirate Princess
Author: Ben White
Price: $0.99
Get it on Amazon Kindle

There's no place like home.

For Princess Miya Black, 'home' is Clover Island, a tiny dot of a place not even named on most maps. Founded fifteen years ago by her parents, ex-pirate Tomas "Boots" Black and ex-princess Lilith "Lily" Brightburn, it's a place for second chances and new beginnings. It's there that Miya was born, there she grew up, and there she now lives, spending her days riding with her best friend, practising swordsmanship with her fake uncle, sailing with her father, and avoiding book lessons with her mother. To Miya it's the best place in the entire world, and she knows how lucky she is to have it.

So when her home is threatened Miya doesn't just sit around around sulking. She's the princess of Clover Island, with the blood of pirate legends running through her veins, and she'll do whatever it takes to protect her kingdom.

Why I want to read this:
1. PIRATES. I. Love. Pirates. Obsessively.
2. I love the name Miya. It sounds so pretty. And yet she's a PIRATE. Win.
3. It sounds like an exciting and thrilling adventure story. (I hope there's a love story in there, though... Can I say that?)
4. Miya sounds like a kick-ass heroine. Perhaps already covered by 2 and 3, but I don't care. <3

_____________________________________________

Title: October Breezes
Author: Marie Rachel Hooley
Price: $2.99
Get it on Amazon Kindle
Get it on Barnes & Noble Nook

Skye Williams knows everything there is to know about mistrust: Dad skipped out when she was five, leaving Mom with an angry daughter and an upside-down mortgage. Then there were the boyfriends—at least a dozen—hot on his heels and hot for her mom, none of whom stuck around long enough to figure out Skye hated them—hated the underage toys they brought as bribes and the way they looked at her, speeding past with the same distaste they would have for a yellow traffic light. And now this Warren Jacobs has shown up to sweep Mom off her feet—and all he’s brought with him is a crummy, dog-eared book. She doesn’t even read! How can Mom even like this guy, much less trust him? He’s just another loser with a capital L.

But Warren’s not the only concern rocking Skye’s world. Devin Abbott, a guy she’s known since kindergarten, has changed. Almost at once, he’s become this tall, broad-shouldered guy with dark hair and easy eyes she might date—if he hadn’t always been her best friend. Skye swears there’s nothing between them, but everyone else thinks differently. Devin doesn’t act the way he used to, especially when Kellin Morgan, senior quarterback, asks Skye out. Flattered, she accepts, and, Devin sulls up—and he isn’t the only one. Kellin’s best friend, Tyler Rutherford, gets bent out of shape, too, as he’s always wanted Skye for himself. When Kellin and Skye attend one of Tyler’s famous parties, neither senses the impending disaster. Afterwards Skye is left with consequences that will change not only her life but also that of everyone who loves her.

Why I want to read this:
1. It was recommended to be by a dear friend whose opinion I trust, and she swore she couldn't get it out of her head.
2. It's all about the romance. You can tell that right away. And I love a good romance.
3. Because of insider info, I happen to know it's not a light-hearted romance, but rather one that may be disturbing and graphic at times. And who doesn't like a good twisted story now-and-then?
4. I like the name Devin. (What is it with me and names?)

_____________________________________________

Alright--your turn! What's on your TBR list?

Why Do You Write/Read YA and Not Adult Fiction?

2011-03-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

I'm posing this question to the general population of YA writers and readers. Why write/read YA when you're (very likely) an adult? Was high school so awesome you want to relive it in your stories? Was high school so terrible you hope to fix it or see it fixed through fiction? Being a teenager sucked, in a lot of ways--stuck in school, abiding by other people's rules... So why?

I'm a YA writer. I choose to write fics based on teens. A couple of times I dabbled with writing something a little older--someone in their early twenties. But I always find myself unable to finish or just coming back to YA. Why?

Well, first of all, writing YA is just plain easier. I don't know a lot about a lot, so writing adult fiction is nearly impossible for me. For example, I wanted to write a fic once that took place in a hospital--but I don't know anything about hospitals or being a doctor/nurse/etc. I wouldn't even know where to start. That fic died before it even started. (I know "Get a crash cart! Code blue!" - but that's about it.) I know a bit about marketing, but don't ask me anything about figures or marketing surveys and analytics, because I couldn't tell you much. I know my hairstylist cuts my hair, but I don't know anything about how mixing chemicals for cutting works, or how to determine what style will look good on someone. And as an adult, that's a very important thing, don't you think? You spend so much time at your job it's next to impossible to write an adult fic where you don't touch on that at least a little.

There are endless resources out there for learning about other jobs, but unless you've lived through it, it's unlikely you can write about it without it sounding weak. You could job shadow someone (ala Castle!) but if you work, that's also going to be impossible. Plus, if you call up, say, a police department and ask to shadow someone, I doubt they're going to say yes.

So--YA is simpler. But other than that, why write about what is, for a lot of people, the worst time of your life?

Here are my reasons--I'd love to know some of yours.

Why I Write Young Adult Fiction:

High school sucked for me until I left and went to a junior college for Running Start. Then it got insanely better. I like the idea of being able to "fix" high school.
There aren't any responsibilities as a teenager, at least there weren't for me. I didn't have to work ("Studying is your job. Get good grades!" -- my dad) and I had everything provided for me: a modest allowance, a car, a cell phone. Being a teen is "easy."
When you're a teen, you love wholeheartedly. There's a quote from Family Guy while they were spoofing Dawson's Creek, and the comment was, "There is nothing in our lives that will ever be as important as what's happening right here, right now, in front of these lockers." It's a total joke, but to a teen, it's more than true. EVERYTHING is important when you're a teen, even a note a friend passes you between classes.
Freedom. Parents work. It's a fact of life. Unless you've got a stay-at-home parent, you're going to be on your own for many hours of the day. Plenty of time to have tons of angst.
Teens have their whole lives ahead of them. They are not set in their ways. They're constantly changing and evolving. They think they know who they're going to be in ten years, but they're wrong. Absolutely wrong. And that's exciting.
Character analysis. Who didn't stare at the "popular" kids and think to themselves, "Wow, you're seriously not as cool as you think you are..."? Who didn't listen to inane chatter and think, "Is it really possible to be such an idiot? Or is this just a show?" These are all things you get to explore in YA fiction.
Camaraderie. Maybe you were miserable in school. Maybe the person reading your book/story is, too. Suddenly, they're not so alone anymore.
Fantasy. Your characters are alive and breathing and full of their own expectations and hopes and dreams. Now you can live through that, too. (And who doesn't love a good fantasy?!)
Innocence. Kids and teens are innocent creatures. They don't know what the world has in store. And, frankly, there's no smutty sex scenes (which is not my cup of tea myself. I know some people dig a good trashy romance novel, but I think I'd get uncomfortable writing or reading one).
Lessons. "Here's what you can learn from this." I love when you get a subtle lesson from a book. Something that says, "Oh, I bet I could do that, too." Or, "This is a new way of looking at it..." I used to love books where I would learn something, even if I didn't know I was learning it at the time. I'd read a book, and then later find myself in a similar situation and go, "I wonder if this person is thinking what the character was thinking..." And a lot of times, it worked in my favor to wonder that.

There are more reasons, but I can't think of them all. Maybe in my mind I'm still a teen--even though now I have a steady job, bills to pay, and a husband. But I love YA fiction, both reading and writing it, and I'm so curious why adult writers want to write YA, too.

So, let me know: Why do you write/read YA fiction?

It Must Be a Sign...

2011-03-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

So, you'll see below I mentioned the Writer's Digest Self-Published Award that I entered The Eroe for--and didn't win even by a little bit.

Well imagine my surprise and astonishment when I found in the mail today a form from Writer's Digest advertising the 19th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Competition--ending April 11. (Find out more info at Writer's Digest - Self-Published Competition.)

Is it a sign? Should I enter The Wrong Path to this year's competition? Or maybe The Eroe again? Now that it's in better shape?

I'm not sure, but I certainly had a giant grin on my face when I saw the announcement for the competition. Exciting stuff, huh??

On Editors and My Submission to Writer's Digest Self-Published Awards

2011-03-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

I don't let people read my writing.

I made the very rare exception for my husband after we'd been married for about a year. It was surprising, indeed, when I sent him the stories I was working on--chapter-by-chapter. But he was so encouraging and so helpful in helping me craft plots and scenes I felt the writing was really half his anyway. So it didn't feel so scary after a while, and I began looking forward to writing, partially so I could see his reaction as he read.

When I prepared to publish The Wrong Path, I was also planning to go it alone. Like I always do. But as the deadline I'd set for myself loomed closer, I went back and read The Quest of Dai: The Eroe and found myself growing sick. I'd actually published that? I'll tell you now: Dai in The Malo is nothing like Dai in The Eroe. I grew nervous. Agitated. Flushed at the idea of making the same mistake again.

So I put out the SOS for someone to review the The Wrong Path. I was scared. Petrified. What if no one wanted to read it? What if someone (besides me) read it and thought it sucked? What if there was nothing entertaining about the book? What if I failed (again)?

When not just one, but TWO wonderful people offered to be my editors for the book, I thought, "It has to be a sign. It's going to suck. They're going to hate it and rip it to shreds." And one of the girls who offered, I will tell you, (and I'm telling you now, Manda!) changed my life in more ways than I can actually write. I'm not just saying that because she's probably going to read this. I'm telling you because it's totally and completely true. She was my best friend at a crucial, life-changing time in everyone's life--their early teens--and she really did change me in so many ways. I was devastated when we lost touch, and astonished when we reconnected over a decade later. (The power of the internet? I think so!) And the other woman--well, you've probably all seen Jane's comments on my blog, and if you're smart, you'll have checked out her website and you know what an incredible and impressive person she is.

Probably needless to say, I was intimidated. But I sucked up all of my courage (and I'm not kidding, it really took all of my courage) and sent the manuscript on its way, begging for brutal honesty and terrified I was going to get it.

And I am so, so glad I did.

One paid very careful attention to my grammar and spelling (though I still don't understand why "pursed" isn't a word. I really don't.) and used track changes to point out parts of the story she liked. She fixed a sentence that has been plaguing me since I wrote the book but was so much in love with I couldn't bring myself to change. (She did.) I was giddy with delight and happiness when I read every comment and relieved when I read her edits. "Better," I thought to myself, "this is making the book so much better!"

The other edited mainly in content. I'll be honest--it stung every time I read what she didn't like about the book. The writer in me was indignant, but the reader in me was like, "Yes, of course that makes sense. She's absolutely right--this and this need fixing desperately." I had to step outside of the writer and say, "Will following the advice make things better?" And I had to agree, it would. Being inside the characters as you're writing does nothing for a reader. They're not in your head, are they? How are they going to know what was (or wasn't) motivating your character(s)? It was so wonderful to read the feedback, showing me how I could improve. How I could make it better. Things I never, ever would have thought of. I'm so lucky my begging for brutal honesty paid off!

I am so grateful, to both of you, for being so open and honest with me about your feedback. For telling me exactly what I needed to hear. It's actually a relief, oddly enough, to know how I can make the book stronger. What I need to do to make it more enjoyable. I cannot thank either of you enough!

My advice to writers? Get an editor. Seriously. Find someone willing to read your book(s) and read every word they come back with. If you're lucky, like me, someone will tell you what you really need to hear.

Now--on to other news... A long time ago, nearly a year, actually, I submitted The Eroe for the Writer's Digest Self-Published awards. (This was before I read it again and cringed with dread.) We were supposed to receive feedback in October, but it was around that time that mail was being stolen from the address I have all of my mail sent to, so I was sure it was one of the unfortunate pieces lost. "Maybe it's a sign," I consoled myself. "You probably wouldn't have wanted to read the review anyway..."

But I was cleaning out some old boxes from our move to our new apartment, and found a large envelope with my name on it. You can only imagine my astonishment when I opened it and found the rejection letter (oh yes, it was rejected) for the award. I shifted through the papers to see the "Participation Certificate" consolation prize, and under it, there it was. My review from a professional editor.

My heart sank into my chest. I sat down at the dining room table and slowly began to read.

"How would you rate this story on a scale from 1-5? (1 being poor, 5 being excellent)

Plot: 4
Grammar: 5
Character development: 5
Production quality and cover design: 4

Judge's commentary:
What did you like best about this book?
Congratulations on writing and publishing your novel! You have a very intriguing story here. Lots of great action and dialogue with a minimum of narration. Excellent character development. Lots of great details that make the scenes come alive for the readers. Good job with grammar, proofreading, and formatting of the book.

How can the author improve this book?
This is pretty long for a YA novel. You could split this into two novels with all this material. I'd like to see the cover image in this document."

18/20 points.

18. Out of 20. Points.

"This judge," I said to myself, gaping in disbelief, "is incredibly nice and generous." I re-read the comments from the judge. "Incredibly nice," I said to myself, still stunned. "Wow. Too nice. Is this a real review?"

I think I read it three times before I believed I was really staring at a review. Then I slowly set the paper down and finished cleaning the kitchen.

I showed the review to my husband, who cheered at what a positive review it was. I thought about the criticism. "Enough for two books," I mused. I grinned to myself. "Wonder what they would think about the latest revision?" (Wherein I've cut the book down by approximately 40,000 words.)

So. Do I feel motivated to write? Motivated to revise The Wrong Path per my wonderful editors? You bet. And who knows? There's always next year for the competition...

Monday's Bad News--Good News Time

2011-03-07T17:32:00.000-08:00

Bad news:
We still don't have a couch.

Good news:
I got the ring (finally!) my husband bought me for my birthday. It is positively stunning! Bigger (wider) than expected, but ohmygosh, SO PRETTY. It is the whitest white gold you've ever seen.

Link:
http://www.benbridge.com/shop/product.php?productid=11541

Bad news:
I refuse to relinquish The Quest of Dai: The Eroe.

Good news:
I got two (two!) volunteers to read The Wrong Path! YAY!!

Bad news:
I laid my sweaters out to dry on the floor in a circle and the cat threw up right in the middle (IN THE MIDDLE!) of them and then used three of the four sweaters to cover it up. Little brat.

Good news:
A friend of mine who I've lost touch with for six-plus months messaged me! YAYNESS! Talk about motivation to buy a couch, huh?

Bad news:
We still haven't had my car towed, and it's been broken for about a month. (We're so lazy!!!)

Good news:
Work today FLEW by because I was ridiculously busy, and it just keeps getting busier.

Bad news:
I'm still in a writing slump.

Good news:
I'm desperately trying to claw my way out of it!

So--what's YOUR good and bad Monday news?!

Still Not Out Yet?!

2011-03-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

What the hell, right?!?

Well as I mentioned previously, my writing battery not only died, it like, DIED. Hardcore. So much so that I couldn't even bring myself to read/edit The Wrong Path or The Quest of Dai: The Eroe one more time.

But after a rather long week at work, I've decided to give myself some good news and say, "I'm doing it! Now!" And I'm doing my final read-through of The Wrong Path, followed shortly by The Quest of Dai: The Eroe.

If you're interested in reading through either one for me post my final read-through, before I publish it for the world to criticize, I'm willing to take readers! I don't pay, but I promise to put your name in my dedications. :) I'm kind of just hoping for someone to read one (or both) through and say, "Yes, this works!" or, "Wow, are you really thinking about publishing this?"

If you're interested, you can comment or e-mail me before Sunday night! <3

And if you've been waiting for one of the books, then rest assured--they're on their way!

Things To Be Grateful For...

2011-02-19T11:02:00.000-08:00

So, as I mentioned in a previous blog post, I blog most often when I'm writing, and since I'm not writing, I'm not really blogging. BUT. I just got some awesome news, and it inspired me to post. <3

And, since I love me some lists, I call this one:

Things to be Grateful For:

Rebecca Herbst being rehired at General Hospital! We're still waiting on final confirmation/official word, but it sounds as good as gold. WE WON, PEOPLE! The girl I grew up watching is saved! I am ecstatic. I'm practically in tears because I'm so happy.

Housekeepers - They came yesterday and cleaned up my apartment so now it's all sparkly and clean and beautiful. It looks gorgeous! I came home from work and I gasped. My hardwood floors gleamed. It was just stunning. They even polished my jewelry case!
Sam having a soul on Supernatural - Sam was never my favorite character by far, but in the first half of this latest season, he was soulless and he sucked. I wonder--often--if it was hard for the actor to literally not act for half of the season. It was terrible. But then they stuck Sam's soul back in him and the spark the show was lacking came back with an astounding force! It was beautiful. I have a new appreciation for Sam, and the Sam-and-Dean dynamic. Loves it!
Being able to eat - I finally got to eat McDonald's today for the first time in weeks after my ulcer. It was awesome. My stomach still hurts a bit, but nothing like it did before. I forgot how good fried food tastes!
Thinking you're going to get in trouble for something, and then not - I was sure I was going to get into trouble for something at work, and fretted about it for two days. Once it all came down to it, not only did I not get in trouble, I was helped instead!
Friends who make you laugh - I don't have a lot of friends, but the ones I do never cease to make me laugh. Hysterically. And I can trust them with anything. I love them to pieces. I'm lucky they're in my life.
Husbands/life partners/significant others - My husband worships the ground I walk on. That's not being conceited, he really does. And in turn, he is my whole life. I'm the luckiest woman alive! (Besides all of you who also have that!)
Pictures of your wedding day - My wedding pictures were terrible. I hate them. So my husband and I are searching (desperately) for a place where we can retake them. A friend I once had years ago had her wedding photos redone a year after her wedding at this place/studio/somewhere in California, where they had all these sets. It looked like the inside of a castle, but I guess it was just their backdrops. They had all these different, really scenic backgrounds. I keep trying to find the place, but I can't. What's important is that someday I WILL, and then we will have awesome wedding photos. Assuming I can still fit in my dress. ;)
Books - I have three bookshelves. Each has five rows, about two-three feet long and deep enough to hold two rows of books. They are almost completely filled, and I still have more boxes of books in the living room yet unpacked. And I want more books. And more bookshelves. And that makes me ridiculously happy.
Finding the perfect couch - I finally found the couch/living room set I want. It's going to cost us almost $10,000. I may keep looking, since that is REALLY EXPENSIVE, but it makes me happy to know I can actually find something I like after all that time I spent looking and not finding anything.
My smartphone - I love that thing. A handheld laptop, camera, book, and phone, all-in-one. It's a thing of beauty, isn't it?

Okay, my list is long, but I bet there are things I forgot. What's on your list?

How Fanfiction Writing Makes You Wonder What You're Doing Wrong

2011-02-16T17:40:00.000-08:00

I'm a fanfic writer.

I'm proud of it, too, even though a lot of "real" writers shy away from admitting they are fanfic writers or have been in the past. It's not considered a "real" form of writing, and in the writing community is considered an almost taboo subject (sort of like self-publishing?).

But I am a proud fanfic writer. I've been writing fanfic since I was thirteen, possibly younger, even, and over the years attribute a lot of honing my craft to my fanfic. I will always, always thank fanfic for making me a better writer.

Lately my fanfic has been in the Vampire Diaries realm, which is fitting considering how much I love my LJ Smith and my Kevin Williamson. (I used to write Dawson's Creek fanfic back in the day--it was horrible. I was still learning back then.) But it's a nice outlet for me to explore my love of Damon and Elena and get some freedom from the grueling original writing trenches. I don't have to edit and re-edit my fanfic. I can just write it, edit it once, and go. It's a relief--a nice, easy outlet. I <3 fanfic writing. (And, of course, it helps me to show the writers, "Haha, I can totally do this better than you!")

An amazing thing about fanfic is how honest readers are. They are willing to tell you, point blank, if they dislike something. If they like something. You know, immediately, how well you're doing--or not doing--chapter-by-chapter.

I submit for your attention the latest story I posted on fanfic.net yesterday. It published at approximately 8:30 P.M. PST. By EOD on 2.15, it had received 1.12 thousand hits, and 172 visits. (You can think of it as page views vs. people.) Today I just checked and the story has received 1.67 thousand hits, and 275 visits.

The story has received 8 reviews.

As an author, this tells me something. Either I'm doing something wrong--i.e., people don't like my story--or people don't feel the need to comment because the story is complete.

From previous experience, I know these things:

The story lacks angst the fan base generally prefers. It was a nice, happy story, and written to be angst-less because I wrote it as a Christmas present.
The story lacks a plot. It's just a bunch of fluffy-happy-fun-times. Also not designed to engage readers and make them want more.
It is complete. No one feels the need to tell you it's good or to continue if it's complete. If I had posted chapter-by-chapter, would I have received more comments?
The most important stat is the last chapter compared to the first. On today's count, 384 people started the story today. 275 made it to chapter two. 273 have continued to the end. Most of the people starting are continuing the nine chapters to the end. (This is a good sign--it means people who made it past chapter one are sticking through it to the end. It's a 10k word story. It's not super long, but it's not super short, either.)

Things like this make me think about my original writing, and the direction it heads. A lot. Am I engaging my readers enough? Am I giving them enough of what they want? What else should I be doing differently? I think about all these things when I compare the number of readers to the number of reviews. Not because I'm so vain I feel the need to be constantly praised, but because I worry. What did I do wrong?

And so I wonder--has anyone else ever felt this way?

An Open Letter to LJ Smith

2011-02-10T17:42:00.000-08:00

Dear LJ Smith,

When I was about ten years old, you changed my life.

I had always enjoyed reading and loved books with a passion, and I had always crafted rather horribly-written short stories on my notebook paper during class. But when I was ten I was going through my sister's bookshelves (because she had all the good books) and discovered "The Vampire Diaries." I still remember the dark blue and black cover, and curiously turned the book over to take a peek at the back.

I instantly stole the entire series from her shelf and hid in my room for the rest of the day, listening to Ace of Base on my stereo as I read each and every page of the three-book series. (To this day, I still think of "The Vampire Diaries" whenever I hear any Ace of Base song, and I always remember how it felt to be sitting there curled up on my bed, caught up in the excitement and devouring every word of those books.)

I remember sobbing uncontrollably at the end of book three, when Elena dies, and cursing the author who had given me such an unhappy ending. But as soon as I stopped crying, I reopened book one and re-read my favorite parts, then moved onto book two and then book three.

I honestly can't tell you how many times I have read "The Vampire Diaries" books one through three. I lost count a long time ago. But I had memorized scenes. I pictured them so vividly in my mind I dreamed about them. Elena and Damon became ingrained in my heart and in my soul, shaping my character from that day forward.

Once I finished "The Vampire Diaries" I immediately went to my sister's room, searching for more books with the author LJ Smith on the spine. I begged my mother take me to the bookstore so I could find more. I still remember her hesitation at my "teen-book" purchases, but I was insistent. I had to read more from this magnificent author, who had made me feel a way I had never felt before. Who had opened my eyes to a world I had never dreamed existed. Who wrote in such a way I felt like I was there, living through each scene with the characters.

Over the next few years I read every book you ever published. I own every book you ever wrote, and I have read each of them at least three times. The trilogies I have read at least a dozen times. Each book, especially each trilogy, changed me. It made me see the world in a new way. It opened my mind to greater possibilities than what I had seen before. Even as I grew up, I was faithful to your books, always leaving a spot on my shelf for my "LJ Smith" collection. When my parents started making me trade in books, I never touched yours. I would never loan them to friends in fear they would not return them. And whenever I had a bad day or something was wrong, I would always go to my favorite books, find my favorite scenes, and read until I felt better. In total I have probably spent months curled up in front of my bookshelf, reading your books.

When I started trying to write real stories, not just the few pages on notebook paper, it was your books I looked to for inspiration. I had read your writing for so long and found it so ingrained in me as a person the words that flowed from my fingertips were all in your style. In your terms. My first stories were horrible, shameless rip offs of yours. I even fanfic'd a few of them, before fanfic was even a real thing on the internet. I was desperate for the stories of these characters I loved to continue on, even if I was the only one reading them.

Your writing was always something I tried to emulate--something I strove desperately to learn from and duplicate and make my own. I could never do it; I'm not as good as you. But your stories made me want to try. You made me want to be a better writer. To be a writer.

Even now, almost twenty years later, I still hold all those strains of your writing in my heart. I still think about Cassie and Adam's connection--their silver cord. I still love the bad boys like Gabriel and Damon and still prefer their character type over any other. I still tend to write (and read) books laced with fantasy. Because of you. Because your writing changed my life.

I am no longer at the age where a book can change my life or my personality the way it did back when I was reading your books--and I'm glad. I'm glad you were the one who was there when I was at that age. I'm glad it was your books I found. I'm glad I was able to experience your books at a time when I was learning to become a person, and incorporated pieces from all of your characters into who I am today.

I will never be able to express how much I appreciate you as an author, a mentor, or as a person. I'm just not as good of a writer as you. But someday I hope to meet you, and give you a hug, and tell you that you are as important to me and helped shape my life as much as my parents did.

I look forward to the next piece you unveil to share with the world. I know I'll be right there holding your book in my hand, ready to experience the next journey you take us on.

All my love and appreciation,

Vivian

Review: The Guardian - Katie Klein

2011-02-09T22:57:00.000-08:00

Yep, I finally did it! I FINALLY hit that TBR pile and read The Guardian! HA-HA! I posted the review on Amazon, so you can check it out there, too! But here, I present to you my review of "The Guardian" by Miss Katie Klein!

Title: The Guardian
Author: Katie Klein
Amazon Purchase Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FPYO8K/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title

About the writing:
Normally I don't love first person present tense writing, but I knew within the first few sentences I was going to love this story. Katie Klein has a knack for descriptions--for using the perfect word to describe what she's trying to convey without being overly wordy and still allowing your imagination to fill in the blanks.

About the characters:
Genesis is an amazingly strong heroine. She's sharp, smart, witty, and down-to-earth... no whiny "save me" girl here! She figures out quickly who Seth is and as the plot unfolds she's the one taking action and making decisions and figuring out what's happening to her. And Seth is a fun, protective, slightly jealous, perfect hero--and he's got a little bit of a wicked sense of humor that makes him even more enjoyable. I also particularly enjoyed Carter, Genesis' on-again, off-again boyfriend, who you can't help but love for his complete and utter devotion to Genesis. He's just an all-around nice guy. And Stu! How I loved the short-order cook who was always there with a cheerful smile and reassuring word. They're real characters with real problems, the type of people you'd want to call up on the phone and hang out with.

About the story (MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)
Genesis lives a tough life with her mom. She's a hard-working girl holding a steady job just to help ends meet. After a car accident with her boyfriend Carter, she starts seeing this boy Seth everywhere--but Seth spontaneously appears and disappears. After Genesis connects the dots about the mysterious Seth (which she does rather quickly, because she's a smart one!), she quickly grows accustomed to his presence. And then Genesis starts having mysterious visions. Soon she's right in the middle of a war that has been going on since the dawn of time--a war Seth is desperate to keep her out of. Genesis continues putting her life at risk by willingly helping the Guardians, resulting in the explosive (literally) finale that will definitely leave you wanting more. I know I did...

My thoughts (which I did NOT post on Amazon, because I thought they were too spoilery):
Number one--loved it. Seriously loved that Genesis was not a whiny "save me" heroine. She was strong, determined, and very take-charge. She didn't sit there and stew for eight chapters about, "What is Seth? Why does he mysteriously disappear and reappear?" She was like, "You keep showing up when I'm in trouble... Other people can't see you... Are you my guardian angel?" And she has her moment of, "This can't be real." But she also accepts it, too. And not in a super fast way, in a realistic way. I mean, other people can't see the guy. It made sense.

And Seth?! GET ME ONE. Don't tell my husband. But he can hang out with me anytime. Loved his jealousy. SO CUTE. He was adorably jealous, in that perfect, "melt-your-heart" kind of way. Loved Seth. Really loved Seth. He was just awesome. He's kind of tongue-in-cheek humorous, and he's a romantic, too. There's a scene where they're laying in bed (and it's totally innocent, which I appreciate) and he sits up on his elbows when she sits up straight. Katie wrote that part so well, I could totally picture it, and it was damn adorable. DAMN. ADORABLE. I kind of hate you for how adorable that was, Katie.

Okay, but, I have to admit... I kind of kept expecting Seth to be evil, too. Not because he ever ACTED evil, but just because it was all so perfect. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. "It's gonna get bad... HERE." But then it didn't. So I was pretty relieved at the end of the day when Seth was NOT evil. PHEW.

And. Katie. Stu?!? HOW COULD YOU? /sob I seriously kept waiting for Seth to go back for him. They were supposed to open a restaurant together. HOW WILL THEY LIVE THE DREAM NOW, KATIE?! HOW?!?

There's this scene where Seth and Genesis dance (am I jumping too much? Sorry...) and it's so picture-perfect I wanted it to last forever. But it didn't, and I was sad. I was like, "ROMANCE! ACTION! GO, KATIE, GO!" But it ended, and it just left me agonizingly flipping the pages for more.

I did like Carter, though. I wanted Carter to get something in the end. I felt bad for him. He was good people. I hope he has a good life.

That was the thing about these characters. They were SO realistic I really felt like I could call them up on the phone and talk to them. I want to call them up on the phone and talk to them. I'm a little bummed I can't. They really felt like real people. A testament of Katie's awesome writing? I think so.

So--if you haven't already bought the book (and WHY NOT?) go get it. It's a light, easy read, a nice, sweet romance, and it's well done. You won't be sorry.

Ran Out of Steam...

2011-02-09T20:33:00.000-08:00

So, after about a month of solid writing--and I mean, doing pretty much nothing but write--I think I've finally run out of steam.

I've gotten 2.5 books out of the deal (and 2 of them aren't bad!) so I'm not super unhappy about it. :) I'm a little bummed I'm worn out in the middle of a good part in the ".5" of the equation, but I've still got lots of time. (It's book three in The Quest of Dai series... and I still have to republish book one! I was just on a roll and wanted to keep it going.)

Now, I think, it's finally time to tackle that TBR list. Play WoW again. Possibly do a few chores. <3 After I sleep. I have LOADS of sleep to catch up on.

I just think it's finally time to recharge that "creative battery." Has anyone else ever felt that way? It's like, "FULL STEAM AHEAD!" and then it's like, "...and the battery just ran out." It's like watching your laptop's life slowly dwindle from 5% down to 4% down to 3% and finally it goes into sleep mode. The creative juices are in sleep mode now.

Ahhh... It was a good, good run. :) I got 40k words out of book three, anyway. It's just a horribly-written (and I do mean HORRIBLY WRITTEN) first draft, but what do you expect after working endlessly on two books start-to-finish? Nothing else is going to be great, right? I thought about taking a break, but when I take breaks, I destroy the creative rhythm.

Oh! And for all those wondering, my medicine is working beautifully on my ulcer. :) I'm feeling loads better. Still on a strictly milk-drinking diet, but feeling better nonetheless. And if you're looking to drop a few pounds, just Advil-overdose yourself into an ulcer. You'll drop five pounds LIKE THAT. ;)

Now, since it's only 8:30, I think it's time to hit that TBR pile... KATIE!!!

What I Would Do With More Hours in a Day...

2011-02-03T18:36:00.000-08:00

Earlier today I was thinking, "Man. I wish I had more hours in the day."

A typical day for me starts at 6:00 A.M. I hit the "stop" button on my phone-alarm, then go back to sleep until 7:00 A.M. Then I wake up, force myself out of bed, hit the lights and grumble about how tired I am, and stumble into the bathroom to shower. (Yes, literally. Every morning. Unless I'm late. And then there's a lot of swearing and adrenaline pumping and running replacing the stumbling.)

Between 8:00 and 8:30 A.M. I leave for work. Arrive between 8:30 and 9:00 A.M. depending on the morning and how much sleep I got the night before. Then I turn on my computer and begin my day. For those curious, I'm a project manager.

Between 4:30 and 5:00 P.M. I leave work. I don't take a lunch break because I only eat once/day on weekdays, sometimes on weekends, so I leave after eight hours. Then I spend about 30-60 minutes on the freeway and finally get through the 17 miles of traffic.

I arrive home, and usually spend about 60 minutes catching up with my husband on our days. We exchange frequent text messages through the day, so we fill each other in on the outlines of the day we've notified each other about. For those keeping track, that puts the clock around 5:30 to 6:30. (Sometimes 7:00 if it's been a long day.)

Then we both pad into the computer room and sit down at our computers and begin our respective hobbies. Usually this means WoW (World of Warcraft) if we're playing together, and when I'm on a writing kick like I have been lately, for me it means writing and my husband it means programming and playing another one of his games with his friends. I also check my e-mail, my blog, my Livejournal, sometimes my Twitter, and often times Kindleboards just to see if there's a conversation I want to join in on. All the checking takes around another 30-45 minutes.

Time check? Around 7:00 to 7:30.

Then it's FINALLY time to open the Word document. To begin writing. To open that elusive portal into another world only inside my head.

But. I'm thinking about some e-mail I forgot to send at work. A project I'm working on. Some stupid comment I made that made me look like an idiot in front of a room full of people. So I can't really concentrate. The flow is wrong. (I still write anyway--you get into the groove eventually.)

Eventually around 10:00 P.M., sometimes midnight if we're really going, and sometimes 1:00 - 2:00 if we're REALLY on a roll, we'll stop to go to bed and watch TV and eat some food. Yes, you'll note I never mentioned eating anywhere in there. We have horrible eating habits. Then we fall asleep to start the daily grind all over again.

So today I was thinking to myself--what would I do if I had more time in the day? What would I do with extra hours? If I didn't work? And I actually Tweeted about it, but I thought I would post this and see if anyone else wanted to share their lists, too. <3

And so, I lovingly call this list...

What I Would Do With More Hours in a Day

Actually USE the Fluidity bar I wanted for over a year and finally purchased, because I seriously love ballet and miss it.
Make awesome, gourmet meals, because I actually really like to cook, and I'm sure my husband is tired of eating food from a can or a frozen pizza.
Play more WoW--I miss playing WoW. But when you have to choose between the creative streak and a video game, you have to choose the creative streak while you still have it.
Clean the apartment--it would be nice to actually clean the place myself instead of hiring a housekeeper. I think I'd get a lot more satisfaction in it.
Buy a couch, so we could actually have people over. (Okay, maybe this is a one-time thing, but man, we SERIOUSLY need a couch...)
Read more. I miss reading. I do. But there's never time for it.
Write more. I always have to stop, and I abhor stopping. It breaks the flow, and when you're going back to edit, you can totally tell where you started and stopped.
Stop by my husband's work--just to say hi and bring him lunch occasionally. Because I love him.
Organize my DVD collection. I have HUNDREDS of DVDs, and they're just in a mess on the shelves because I don't want to take the time to sort them together. Season Two Dawson's Creek is next to Season Five of the X-Files, squished between Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Castle: Season One.
Back up my computer files. 'cause you never know when that virus is gonna hit and wipe everything out... Just saying.
Study literature. Really study it, not just enjoy it.
Learn how to ride a horse. Because I think it would be cool. My husband warns me it would be painful.
Attempt to write like Rafael Sebatini. Then laugh at myself for failing so miserably. (Hey, at least I'm practical, right?)
Get my PMP (Project Manager's Certification) and MBA (Masters of Business). Not normal degrees for a writer, but I still want to be able to show them off to my kids some day and be like, "See? Mommy pursued her dream AND held a steady career. You will do the same."

So, it's not a comprehensive list by any means, but those were just things that popped into my head when I thought about it.

How about you? What would you do with more hours in the day?

I Just Fell in Love (Don't Tell My Husband)

2011-01-30T13:15:00.000-08:00

Above Ground
A.M. Harte
Cost: FREE ONLINE

When nineteen-year-old Lilith Gray heads above ground for her first glimpse of the sun, she hardly expects to stay there — much less be trapped on the surface with no way back home. Stranded in a city of infected, her only hope for survival lies with the taciturn werewolf Silver who rescues her for reasons even he cannot fathom.

This is Lilith’s first encounter with the infected, and if she isn’t careful it may be her last. Hunted by trackers, threatened by Silver’s pack, and with the dark mysterious Snake on her tail, Lilith only has one option: adapt or die trying. Will she survive long enough to return home?

So, the book pretty much sells itself because it sounds cool. But. BUT. I ran into a post on Kindleboards from A.M. Harte and went, "Huh. Cool chick. Pretty, too!" So I checked out her site. (I'm not petty. I just like pretty things.) Then I started reading, and was startled at how well-written everything was. I mean, we're talking fully-published quality here, people. Her hooks are unbelievable. So I got more intrigued. Dug a little deeper. Discovered she had books out. ONLINE. For FREE. YOUNG ADULT STYLE.

Went back to reading her blog. Decided she was a seriously cool chick. Thought about e-mailing her to tell her I'm in love with her. Thought she might get scared. Decided to blog about her instead.

So... You know... Why are you still here? Go read! It's definitely on my TBR list. ... Along with all the others. (KATIE I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN YOU!!!)

Finished! And an Ulcer

2011-01-29T23:20:00.000-08:00

Man, why is this blog always about my writing?

The good news: I've finished draft one of The Quest of Dai: The Eroe. (HOORAY! ZOMG IT'S DONE!)

The bad news: I'm pretty sure I have an ulcer.

No matter what your doctor tells you, folks, it is not okay to overdose on Advil. It'll rip right through your tummy. I did it almost four days ago, and my stomach is still in pretty bad shape. I'm nauseous all the time. I'm drinking milk by the gallons, but that only helps temporarily. I got a bottle of Pepto this afternoon and I've already gone through half of it. It's not a lot of fun.

And, oh man, do I miss my caffeine... But apparently, just FYI in case you think you ever have an ulcer, anything with acid in the drink (ala Coke) will make you... sick. There you go. Polite terms. So don't do it.

I don't have all of the symptoms, so my husband and I aren't sure I have one. But this has been pretty intense for a few days now, and it's still bad. Slowly getting better, but still lame. And every website says to go see a doctor.

Except my doctor is over an hour away. It'll make me late for work.

Ugh. Oh well. I'll let you know how my steady diet of milk and Pepto works out. Oh, and sleep. Crazy amounts of sleep. But that could be because I'm generally sleep deprived and I get sleepy when I write. (Weird, huh? It's either a writing high and I can't stop, or I can't keep going.)

So hopefully everyone else is doing better than me health-wise. And hopefully you're looking forward to the new version of The Eroe? I'm going to do a better cover for the Kindle version. I think I even know what I'm going to do with it, so that's exciting. Maybe a different cover will catch the eye more. I loved the cover of this one, but everyone I asked hated it.

I'm so out of touch. Man.

OMG, Vivian, You Did What?!

2011-01-28T18:37:00.000-08:00

Ha--exactly.

I'm currently on page 167 of 266 of The Quest of Dai: The Eroe. I've basically rewritten everything up until now, because, wow... There is a lot of really, really bad writing in there. Everyone who liked it, I bow to you and love you from the bottom of my heart for being willing to read through all of my horrible errors. Some of it actually makes me cringe.

And, because I've already written and completed book two, and a draft of book three, going back in to book one and adding in all these little hints is pretty fun! Note to any future authors out there: NEVER PUBLISH BOOK ONE UNLESS YOU'RE POSITIVE YOU KNOW THE ENTIRE REST OF THE PLOT. I knew how book three was going to end, I knew the basic plot line, but since I'm not an outliner, I had no idea about the rest of it. So... Wow.

Also, the book was really long. Oh my gosh, it's so long. I go back through and read it and say, "Yep, I know what I was thinking there." (It's like a time capsule!) But it was, really, unnecessarily long. I put in a lot of things that were filler because I thought I needed them--but I didn't. Filler doesn't make a book good, y'all. Filler detracts from the main attraction! Sure, long books are the latest craze, but there's something to be said about not pulling your readers away from why they picked up the book to begin with.

As I mentioned, I'm about halfway through the book, and I've cut--brace yourselves--60 thousand words.

I'll give you a minute to digest that.

I cut SIXTY THOUSAND words from this book so far, and guess what? I've made it BETTER. Streamlined it like crazy. Improved the flow. Removed the tangents.

Oh, and Dai's character got a bit of a makeover. No more whining and feeling sorry for herself and throwing tantrums. I still see why I did it, and I still think I was right to do it, but frankly, her character doesn't work written like that. Dai needed a change--and with her change, came Westly's.

I think my heart is saddest about the change I put Westly through. He's still got that "badass" in his character, but the coldness that made Dai think he was going to kill her is gone. Why, you ask? Why would I shred one of my favorite characters of all time?

Because it didn't work for book two.

When I re-read book one, I was astonished. "They really hate each other," I said to my husband, stunned. "Book two can't work if they hate each other."

"It works," he argued. "It makes sense."

But it doesn't make sense. -_- It doesn't make sense because, well... I can't tell you. Just trust me on this one.

NOW. You're probably going, "Whoa, wait, hold up. You destroyed the book! How am I supposed to pick up with book two if you've completely rewritten book one?!"

But never fear. I left in all the major plot points. Everything you'll need to know for book two is still in book one (and a few extra hints to book three!). Plus, if you've read the summary for book two, you'll know that Dai's memory's been wiped. So you'll be just fine.

That being said...

If you happened to have liked The Eroe, and you were gracious enough to purchase it, I am going to do the right thing and SEND you a copy of the updated one. Free. Because I think you'll like this version better anyway. ;) All YOU have to do is e-mail me your address. But don't do it right now... It's not ready yet.

I still have that horrible backlog of books (that I regrettably still have NOT read), and I promise promise promise they are absolutely next on my to-do list as soon as I finish this manuscript. Right now I'm at kind of a break--one of those horrible "blocks" writers often speak of--where I'm trying to figure out what to do with Fiona.

Did anyone LIKE Fiona? Really? I toyed with the idea of writing her out altogether, but since she's pretty integral to the rest of the series, she stays. I just need to know what to do with her. I kinda just want to poke her with a stick until she goes away.

So, that's all for now. Sorry I haven't updated much, but it's literally been work-write-sleep for the last week. Somewhere in there I find the time to eat. Sometimes.

'til next time!

Z.O.M.G. - The Quest of Dai: The Eroe

2011-01-19T18:50:00.000-08:00

Truth time, y'all.

I made so many edits to The Quest of Dai: The Eroe that I no longer had a copy of the manuscript once I sent it in to Outskirts Press. And I had made SO MANY changes and I had SO MANY versions of the damn manuscript that I didn't even know which one was the final one anymore. So it was literally impossible for me to correct the book without typing it out word-for-word (all 164,692 words of it...) from the published novel.

Based on the suggestion from one of my readers, I requested the HTML files from Outskirts Press, and my representative (the wonderful, super kind woman) graciously delivered them to me.

I'll give you a moment to digest what that means.

Give up?

It means, for the first time in three years, I have a FINAL, COMPLETE version of The Quest of Dai: The Eroe.

In Word.

Editable.

I honestly teared up when I saw the files. I got choked up when I started copying and pasting them into a Word document. And now, as I sit here, literally rewriting the entire thing (oh my god, how did I think this was ANY good three years ago...? How little I knew...), I am overcome with happiness. Because I'm going to make this something I can really be proud of.

I was proud of The Quest of Dai: The Eroe when I published it. Really--I was. But it should have been better. It should have been the story that I wanted to tell. At the time, I just didn't know what I was doing. I was 24, and it was my dream to be published. I wanted to tell my story. I thought it was okay to publish it as it was. I didn't understand that it wasn't okay to just type things out as they came to me and hit "publish". I mean, don't get me wrong, I rewrote the damn thing more times than I care to remember. But I didn't get it. I didn't understand what it really meant to rewrite. I thought rewriting meant, "Making sure it makes sense." (I know, I was 24. I should have known better. ... I didn't.)

But I'm literally giddy as I type this. I'm one page in, and I've already ripped it to shreds and am putting it back together. Properly. Now I know that a book doesn't have to be 164k words to be "the right length." I know so much more now. Things I wish someone had told me.

I'm honestly hesitant to publish The Wrong Path until I fix The Quest of Dai... Because just in case someone likes The Wrong Path and wants to pick up The Quest of Dai: The Eroe, I want to make sure they get a quality piece. The piece that should have gone out in the first place.

So... if you're reading this, I'm kind of begging for some help/guidance here. I'm going to push my ass off to get this done and re-uploaded to Kindle before the end of January so I can still release The Wrong Path ON-TIME... But would anyone be offended that I lied if I pushed both releases to February? (Would it make you feel better if I said I was born in February?)

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated! <3

(Also, as soon as I'm done with this, I'm totally sending it back to Outskirts and asking them to replace the paperback version of my book. Because I still really love Outskirts Press. Seriously. If you want to go with a POD publisher, choose them. It's been such a positive experience for me... Even if it costs me an arm and a leg, there is NOTHING like holding your book in your hand if you're a writer. Absolutely. Nothing.)

My "TBR" List

2011-01-18T22:45:00.000-08:00

The "TBR," or, "To Be Read" list, for those not in the know (those like me, who had no idea what the hell that meant for the LONGEST time), keeps growing. I'm packing this Kindle full of books and they're all at unbelievably low prices. I haven't paid more than $2.99 for a book yet! And considering that books now-a-days will cost nearly $10, I'm pretty stoked about it.

And so, I've decided to share my current TBR list here, because, frankly, I'm tired of talking about my writing. ;) (Just like I'm sure you're tired of READING about it! It's going fine. [/story])

And because I'm SO nice, I'm even going to include links to the books, so you can check them out yourselves! Look at all this energy and effort I put in for you guys... I'm such a giver! <3 Also, if you really want to check these books out--and why wouldn't you?!--I'm willing to loan! But in exchange, you have to leave a review on Amazon or B&N. See? I'm SUCH a giver! Just leave your e-mail address in a comment with the title you'd like me to send you. Note: You do NOT have to own a Kindle to get the loan! I think you just have to get Kindle for your PC. Or phone. Or something. I'm not exactly sure how it works...

Glory - Devin O'Branagan

Seventeen year old Glory Templeton’s blood holds the cure for a deadly pandemic-plague and she embarks on a quest to save humanity. When evil forces conspire to stop her, three supernatural beings are assigned to be her guardians. Forbidden love, ancient secret societies, mysterious astronomical monuments, vampires, witches, angels and demons all contribute to the high adventure that tests the character of this remarkable young woman. The legend of Glory begins! “Twilight meets The DaVinci Code...” www.GloryLegend.com

Why I picked it up: Hello! Angels? Demons? Forbidden love?! It reminds me of a story I was working on and never finished. (Mine was about Lilith and Lucifer, but that's neither here nor there.) It sounds epic, doesn't it?!

Harsh Climate [Kindle Edition] - Camille LaGuire (Author)

On a lonely country road, in the cold of winter, two runaway teens are out of gas and stranded. They seek shelter in a distant farmhouse, only to find it's the lair of a gang of vicious kidnappers. Can they dodge the crooks and the weather long enough to save the kidnapped child...and themselves?

HARSH CLIMATE is a fast paced novella of crime and suspense, approximately 30,000 words (100 pages).

Why I picked it up: She had a badass banner on the Kindle Boards. I wish I were kidding. I saw the banner and thought, "Runaway teens? Shelter in a crook's lair? Could be fun!" So I picked it up. Besides, I like her. I wanted to support.

The Guardian [Kindle Edition] - Katie Klein (Author)

Seventeen-year-old Genesis Green is living anything but a charmed existence. As far back as she can remember, she and her mother have been bouncing from town to town trying to make a better life for themselves.

Late one evening, Genesis and her boyfriend are in a car accident. Carter’s SUV rolls, and Genesis finds herself injured; lying on the pavement. Just before she slips into the darkness, an unfamiliar voice calls out to her: promising everything will be fine.

His name is Seth, and he’s the Guardian assigned to protect her.

Now, strange things are happening: Genesis is having bizarre visions. The biggest surprise comes when she learns that, through these revelations, she has the power to change the outcome—to alter courses.
When the Guardians learn about her gift, they ask her to join forces; to help them. The only thing standing in her way is Seth. To join the Guardians means stepping into the middle of an epic battle between good and evil. Even with supernatural protection, there’s no guarantee that Genesis will ever be safe again.

But before she can choose between the angel she loves and the purpose she’s discovered, the Evil Ones make the choice for her.

Why I picked it up: Well, you all know about my obsession with Katie by now... (I think she's afraid of me, but that's okay. She'll warm up to me. ;) ) But, seriously... check out that teaser. Tell me this book doesn't sound incredible. I double dare you. Plus, the dude's name is Seth. And that's the name I used for the very first full-length book I ever wrote. I died a little of happiness when I saw this.

The Venom of Vipers [Kindle Edition] - K.C. May

A supervirus threatens to wipe out the human population.

The only hope for the future is a cure hidden inside Ryder Stone. Created in a lab and brutalized, betrayed and hated by humans, Ryder yearns for freedom. On the outside, a group of human genetic purists want him dead.

When Katie Marsh, a brilliant young geneticist, discovers his secret, she must fight to protect Ryder, gain his trust...and convince him to save humanity before the purists destroy them both.

Why I picked it up: Because I like K.C.. Plain and simple, really. I just dig her. She had the most incredible hook on her signature at the Kindle Boards ever, and I couldn't get it out of my head. So I bought her book. It's not my genre (mine's obviously YA), it's not my area (this is Sci-Fi), and it's not something I probably would have picked up otherwise. I just like K.C.. That being said, I did start scanning through the first few pages, and it's really well written. It's got an interesting story, so, why not, right? (Sometimes it's good to branch out?)

Night Camp [Kindle Edition] - L.C. Evans

A spooky graveyard. A creepy basement. A pair of coffins.

Thirteen-year-old Shane Andrews hates summer camp. When his parents allow him to choose, Shane decides to pick the worst camp he can find. Night Camp must be terrible. For one thing, activities take place at night and campers sleep during the day. That can’t be good, Shane reasons. His parents will realize Night Camp is even worse than they thought and they’ll come back to get him. Then Shane’s plans for summer freedom fall apart. His cousin Brad, a boy with a huge collection of tabloid magazines, convinces Shane that two of the camp counselors are vampires. Shane enlists the help of Brad and a girl camper named Nicole. The three set out to save themselves and the other campers. Then Shane uncovers the secret of Night Camp…

Why I picked it up: I have a crush on L.C., and this is the only book she wrote that wasn't for adults. Not even kidding. This is the nicest woman ever. Whenever I see her avatar on the forums, I know the comment is going to be nice, supportive, and encouraging. She always has a kind word for everyone. I'm a huge fan of L.C.'s.

So... any takers? ;)

How One Tiny Little Section Changes Everything

2011-01-17T22:55:00.000-08:00

How does that happen, you ask? How can adding just one little scene, one TINY little section, change an ENTIRE STORY? Well, I'll tell you how.

First, you write a story. You leave a blank spot called [football scene] because you don't watch football and you don't know anything about it, but you don't want to disrupt the writing flow by looking it up. You just know what's going to happen. So you skip it.

Then as you're editing, you go back to add in [football scene] and end up writing something very cool, something you love, something that just WORKS for the rest of the book... But you'll need to reference it in a later chapter.

So you go to said later chapter, add in that paragraph referring to [football scene] and, of course, have to add in the reactions to this new paragraph. Sadly, this is where it gets messy.

Because suddenly the next set of paragraphs doesn't make sense. But that's okay! Because you can just rework the scene--and besides, it's better this way!

Oh, but, you'll need to reference something said in post-football scene in another chapter.

And the cycle continues...

Pretty soon, you've rewritten the entire novel.

Now, this is just my most recent happenstance of this "rewrite nonsense," but let me tell you... It has happened on MULTIPLE OCCASIONS with this book. (It happened even more with The Quest of Dai: The Malo... I don't want to talk about it.)

And, I ask you... Why can't we just write in order? Why can't these "brilliant ideas" come to us while we're writing? Why do they have to come POST-finishing, which in turn means that we have to rewrite the whole damn thing? Does that frustrate anyone else? Does anyone else do that? Or do you just add in a couple of paragraphs and let it go at that?

On the plus side, and there IS a plus side, The Waif and the Bad Boy (one last time for old times sake!) is... wait for it...

COMPLETE!

That's right, folks. Totally complete. Chapters all put together properly (I told you, adding scenes really messes with a manuscript...), missing scenes filled in, final read-through done except for the newest scenes I added today (which will only get another read-through)... We're GOLDEN. Ready to rock and roll! Just got to add in that Table of Contents, the disclaimer, and title page... And I think we're ready to send this baby off!

C'mon... Who's proud? ;)

I'm thinking of publishing on the 24th. I don't know why. I just like the number 24. It would probably be smarter to do it on a Friday so it's ready for a Saturday/Sunday release, though. Like the movies! If you have any good advice (or any advice, really... suggestion?), I'm willing to listen!

Why I Wish I Were Traditionally Published

2011-01-17T00:27:00.000-08:00

Why I Wish I Were Traditionally Published
By
Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris

Because then I could write whatever I wanted, spell and grammar check it, and send it to my editor, and THEY would have to deal with telling me, "Viv, you can't use this many ellipses..." Or, "Yes, this might sound very good to YOU, but what do you think the reader thinks?"

I talk about this at length on my blog, so forgive me for another one of "these" posts, but I struggle with this all the time. I have edited The Wrong Path so many times and changed so much of it that the "unique voice" that I gave the story is all but washed out. It's now a pretty commercialized, standard, run-of-the-mill teen romance novel. Don't get me wrong--I still like the story, and I actually think it probably flows better now. But I'm sad. So what if I used run-on sentences? It got my point across better than splitting the sentence into two. It FLOWS better now, and it's easier to READ now, but the previous version was more me. It was more of the directive I was trying to send the reader in.

And that's where an editor would be awesome. They could tell me, "Sure, Viv, you can do that." Or, "Nope. CUT." And it would be okay, because they're the editor, and THEY KNOW.

So, dear editor/publishing house/agent-y person, please pick me. I'm super easy to work with, I'm a hard worker, I'm extremely down-to-earth ("I said REGULAR Coke! Not Diet! Get this ^&%$ away from me!"), and I'm a pretty nice person.

Most of the time.

...

I'll share my Red Bull with you?

Alright? kthxbye.

Vivian

Forum Participation

2011-01-16T01:31:00.000-08:00

Have you ever participated in a forum before?

I have done it a few times in the past--quickly discovering that it wasn't for me. But I really like the Kindle Forums (as I'm sure you can tell by now), and as I was reading through one today, I found a signature at the bottom of a post that really caught my eye.

It caught my eye so much, in fact, that I was inspired to write an entire post about it on the Kindle forum (my first ever--and boy, was I nervous... So nervous that I actually forgot to make my point in my post and had to go back and redo it...). You can read it at "How Your Signature Did (or Didn't) Make Me Buy Your Book", but I'll summarize it for you.

I talked about Katie Klein's signature, and how it had caught my eye (read about that two posts below). Then I talked about another author's signature, and how her book's hook had drawn me in. I said I wasn't insulting people who just used their book covers as their signature, but as a reader, their book cover tells me nothing about their book. I don't know the genre. I don't know the type of book. I don't know anything.

It's not like a bookstore, you know, where you can head straight to your area and go, "Yay! All these books are in my genre!" Or a search on Amazon/B&N, where you're only within your realm. This is a general forum covering all sorts of topics. Your signature can be a powerful thing, but only if you use it right.

The first two responses were very positive, and I was pleased. I was glad that I had taken the time to share that with the authors out there, maybe who were as unsure about this whole process as I was.

But then I got one response that almost made me want to stop posting on forums altogether. Again. The opinion itself wasn't bad (she said she preferred just to look at titles) but then added in a thinly veiled dig at me and my signature, which is only a line of text on the forum, as I haven't started any book promotion over there yet.

I was appalled. Hurt. Angry. Upset. Flustered. Confused. "Why," I asked my husband, when he read the comment, "did she feel the need to be mean just because she disagreed with me?"

"Some people are just like that," was his response. "You should really read the WoW forums sometime, honey."

Now, maybe I'm just taking it personally. Maybe she was offering constructive criticism and I'm just super sensitive. If she had said something in her comment about my signature, I would have explained why my signature is the way it is. But she didn't. She thinly veiled an insult. And it hurt. (Also, how much of an idiot would I be to write a post about signatures and how they can sell books and not even follow my own advice if I wanted to? That's just silly.)

I chose to ignore the comment, and many people replied after with positive comments of appreciation for my thoughts. I've already noticed a difference around the forum, which has been wonderful. (I'M LIKE A GOD. ... joke.) I even clicked on, and purchased, some books I hadn't previously, just because I know more about them now.

So... Do you participate in forums? Do you find people take what you say the wrong way, or find that you're attacked for your opinions? Do you fight back or just let it go? Do you worry about what you write, concerned that someone will take it the wrong way (because someone always seems to)? Or do you just write whatever you feel like writing and worry about explaining yourself later?

COMING SOON! The Wrong Path: A YA Romance - Caught Between Two Brothers

2011-01-15T01:06:00.000-08:00

Watch the trailer:

Coming January 2011 to Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble!

The Guardian - Katie Klein: My First Indie Buy!

2011-01-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

So I've been on the Kindle Boards for a while now, and as much as I totally love all of the authors there (and I do, because they're AWESOME), I'm a YA writer and a YA reader, and most of them lean toward the adult world. It's just not really my genre.

But then I read the most amazing post today, which I just have to quote because it was that damn good.

The question was, "How hard is it to write a book?"

Here was Katie's answer (I've crossed out the part I didn't love):

"~~No. It's not easy. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. Every writer I know has quit a hundred times.~~ There's a difference, though, in wanting to write a book and needing to write a book or you'll die. (lol) (This is me being dramatic.)

Most of us here can't imagine not writing. We'll always come back to it whether we're traditionally published or indies forever, have one reader or a million readers. We start and we quit and we start again and we quit again, but we always come back to the story no matter how hard it gets. "

Why do I love this so much? Because in a few simple sentences, she captured the absolute essence of writing, of being a writer, and the journey OF writing. It was so perfect, it almost broke my heart. So I quoted her in my response on the forum, then went back to check out her profile to see if she was a blogger I could follow.

Then I saw her tagline on her post.

Most authors on the boards just have pictures of their books, which is great, don't get me wrong. But it doesn't tell me anything about the book, about the genre, or about why I would want to click on the link (unless I'm judging a book by its cover, which I do, if I know the genre). But Katie's tagline had a picture of her book cover and this:

The Guardian
A YA Paranormal Romance
Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Guardian/dp/B004FPYO8K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1294080426&sr=1-2

JACKPOT! I thought. YA. Check. Paranormal. Cool. Paranormal Romance?! WIN!! I clicked on that link faster than almost any link I've ever clicked on!

And then. Oh. Then the description of the book.

Lots of descriptions, if I even make it to the book description, lose me. Because they're, frankly, boring. But not Katie's. It was exciting, and thrilling, and gave me just enough to tantalize me by setting up the story without lots of extra words and run-on sentences. (You'd be surprised at how quickly a run-on sentence can ruin your description's excitement.) And her names... Oh, she picked good names. She even picked a name I used in one of my stories! (Am I biased? It's okay to be biased, right?)

So. I bought. You're damn right I bought. I bought my first Indie Kindle book!

I opened that sucker up, and to my disappointment, I discovered that it was written in first person, present tense. (Not only do I hate first person, I REALLY don't like present tense unless it's done so impossibly well that you say, "Yes, it couldn't have been done ANY other way.") But Katie, wonderful Katie, with her beautiful way with words, waylayed all of my fears and arrested my attention with the end of her first sentence.

"sparks exploding in a kinetic frenzy."

So. There you go. If you haven't already gone out and purchased the book--why not? You can get Kindle for your PC, you know. You could be reading IT instead of my blog.

SO GO!

I'll post a review when I'm done. For now, I have some writing of my own, and some reading of my own, to do. <3

Until next time!

It's... So... Blurry...

2011-01-11T21:11:00.000-08:00

I'm currently on edit four of the (previously titled) manuscript The Waif and the Bad Boy. I've edited, changed, rewritten, and added all new chapters. I've read and re-read the manuscript word-for-word almost four times. I kept the ending, and gutted a lot of what was in the middle.

And now I'm at that point.

YOU know that point. That point where you hate everything you've just written? Where you can't possibly read it one more time? Where the words are all blurry and none of it makes any sense anymore and you add in and take out the word "that" half a dozen times?

I hate that point.

I'm trying (frantically) to get this book Kindle (and Nook!) ready by this weekend. I don't have any particular reason for THIS weekend, but I just want to. I've stayed up until 1:00 A.M. every night almost every work day and until almost 3:00 A.M. every weekend night for over a week (over a week?) trying to get this done.

And, of course, I'm still toying with the idea of having it REALLY edited. The super-y awesome Jane Rutherford offered to read my work pre-publishing, and I just keep thinking it's a good idea. (Thank you, Jane, btw!!) I mean, I'm sure I missed something somewhere in there.

I've also been over at the Kindle Boards lately (link to the right). NICEST. GROUP. EVER. Holy cow. Sooooo nice. I pop in when I need a quick break from editing to see what topics are being posted about, and there's always some interesting discussion happening. Someone warned me it was addictive being there, and man, were they right!

AND I sent in an inquiry to iStock photos to see if I could use their photos on a Kindle book cover and a print-on-demand book. I THINK I can (other Kindle publishers have), but I'm not sure about the print-on-demand book. I e-mailed them on Sunday night and still no response. I'm starting to get a little ticked off. It's a pretty simple question! As soon as I hear back (maybe before, if I get impatient!) I'll reveal the cover of my new book, along with the title. I even made a trailer! It's not as cool as my trailer for The Quest of Dai, but I'm a little biased--I love Dai.

Ahhh! Okay. Back to editing. The goal? To be done on Saturday! Then Saturday's blog? The cover and trailer (and title!) reveal of the latest manuscript! Wish me luck!

The Quest of Dai: The Eroe is on Kindle, but...

2011-01-07T19:04:00.000-08:00

So, Outskirts Press is awesome and published my book up on Kindle lickey-split! I heart Outskirts. I really do. They're so fast!

I thought one of the pluses of being up on Kindle would be that I could fix all the horribly embarrassing errors I had left in the book when I published it originally (such as spelling sheath "shief"--did you know Word wouldn't catch that as a misspelling? 'cause... I didn't...). So I went into the Kindle author bookshelf to download the book so I could happily update the HTML file...

And lo and behold, Outskirts locked the file.

I cannot update it.

I tried like mad to download the file, to no avail. It is locked to me. I can't fix it. I can't update it. It's as locked as my book.

So, the book is on Kindle. It's .99. But I'm not announcing it because... Let's face it... It's kind of embarrassing.

Sadly, it looks like I'm just going to have to suck it up and contact Outskirts and ask them to give me an estimate on replacing the manuscript. (They give you a cost estimate on "updating" the book post-publication on a case-by-case basis, I assume based on the length of your book and how much effort it's going to take them to update it.) But if I'm going to update the misspellings, I'm just going to update/revise the whole damn book. There are so many things I want to fix...

UGH. How frustrating... /sigh

So, if you don't mind some terribly misspelled words, give the book a shot. Hey--it's only .99 cents, right? ;)

On Cubicles and Chewing With Your Mouth Closed...

2011-01-05T19:37:00.000-08:00

So, if you're one of the unfortunate thousands (millions?) who are unlucky enough to have to work in a cubicle, I have a little advice for you:

EAT IN THE MOTHERFUCKING KITCHEN.

Yes, I said it. I did. You know why? Because everyone thinks they eat quietly. Everyone thinks they eat politely. Everyone thinks their food smells good. That's why they're eating it. But guess what? Your neighbor across the walkway thinks your food stinks. Your neighbor across the walkway doesn't want to hear you rustle your god damn sandwich/burger/pita wrapper. Your neighbor across the walkway thinks that you chew with your mouth open and doesn't want to hear you slurping on PASTA of all things.

Therefore. If you choose to eat at work, and most people do, then I advise you to either get an office (which means you have to stop being a disgusting slob so you can gain some upward mobility) or eat in the kitchen with the rest of the people who think that they're perfectly sanitary eaters.

Alright? Thanks.

Whew. I feel better. Back to editing!

The Quest for Couches...

2011-01-04T18:29:00.000-08:00

We need a couch.

We decided when we moved to Newcastle that we would leave our old, cat-shredded couch behind and let the movers toss it into the dumpster. It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time--no need to bring that ratty old thing with us to our nice, new apartment. But now that we're expecting company in two days and have no where to seat them in our furniture-barren living room, it occurs to me that perhaps we should have purchased a couch prior to dumping our old one.

On the plus side, for Christmas my parents gave us money to BUY a couch, so now we just need to find a place that will deliver it before-or-on Friday afternoon.

I don't suppose anyone has any suggestions? I was told to wait until January because there were lots of furniture sales in January, but I'm lazy and I'm thinking just buying one on Overstock.com like I had planned is still the best option. The downside, of course, is that it likely won't be here in time for our friend's arrival.

Oh curse my poor, poor planning!

Oh well. Good thing our friends expect no less from me, right??

I'm now editing page 52 of 74, which means I'm almost done. (Hooray!) This is going SO much faster than The Quest of Dai: The Malo. I have one character who made a sudden shift in behavior that bothered me, and while I kind of knew why in my head when I wrote it, as I've been going back through editing it it's been bugging me more and more. Luckily, while my husband and I were discussing the story this morning, I was struck with inspiration for a new chapter that would explain everything, so I was pretty pleased. I'll go back in and add that chapter in once I've finished this revision.

I think I'll probably have three edits before my final read-through. This edit, the next edit to fill in some scenes, and then another edit to clean up anything else I might have missed (and fix any mistakes I made in the LAST edit--not that I would EVER do that...). Then the final read-through.

Then off it's going to go to Kindle world! (And hopefully Nook world--I'm going to check that out!)

I've been doing a little bit of research around submitting manuscripts for the Kindle, and I have to say, it doesn't look easy. There are lots of rules and formatting that you need to follow. Some companies offer their services to format it for you, but since I'm doing a Kindle-only publish, and not doing it through Outskirts this time, I think I'll try to do it myself.

The manuscript is still unfortunately titled The Waif and the Bad Boy right now. My husband has been absolutely no help in trying to come up with a name for it. And I've been so focused on editing that I haven't considered a name. Usually I name the books in a moment of inspiration (or while I'm saving the document before heading off to bed) and that's the name that sticks. Who knows--maybe I'll keep this name for the book. It would certainly be... different.

And on that note, I'm going to start editing (the current) chapter twelve, which is the Homecoming scene, and one of my favorites. So time to get to it!

Compared to Your Main Character...

2011-01-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

If you've read my blog at all, by now you know that I blog mostly when I'm writing (and it comes in spurts), and that I discuss everything I'm editing at length with my husband, who gets every chapter via e-mail as soon as it's gone through my editing churn.

So this morning he and I were discussing my latest piece (still regrettably titled "The Waif and the Bad Boy", someone PLEASE, if you find this, help me with a name!) and he compared the main character to a character on a TV show we had watched.

I found this news both alarming and intriguing. Normally when my husband makes these kinds of associations, I'm quick to dismiss them and point out what an idiot he is for jumping to such stupid comparisons. But this time, I was so caught off-guard by who he had named that I had to take a moment to mull his reasoning over. Slowly, as I thought more about it, the more I realized, "Huh... He's right. He does share some character traits with that character."

It should be noted here that this character type my husband mentioned is one I have never written before, and not one I ever would have considered writing if I had been sitting down to write some fanfic.

So you can imagine how surprised I was as I thought more and more about my story, and how much like this other character my character is. And, oddly enough, I was pleased! This story started out as my attempt to step outside of my realm and write two character types (straight from a character trait book!) that I wasn't familiar with, and I feel like I was fairly successful at it. At least, I accomplished everything I wanted to with them. And then to hear my character being compared to this other one--who by all accounts is an incredibly popular character--was flattering.

It did make me wonder, though... How many readers make associations like that? As the writer, I certainly didn't have an image of this character in my head when I started. But as a reader, would I have made that connection? Do I make those connections when I'm reading someone else's work?

Do you?

Changing Your Voice in the Editing Process

2011-01-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

So as I mentioned yesterday, my husband suggested my first book be the one I affectionately titled, "The Waif and the Bad Boy." (Still a working title, forgive me.)

As a result, last night I started the long, long process of editing the manuscript. The good news is that it's one of my more recent pieces, and I think my writing has drastically improved since I started, so I don't think it's going to require as much editing as my older pieces. Plus, it's not The Quest of Dai series, which is so full of twists and turns that sometimes I have trouble keeping it all straight, so it should be much easier to edit.

It's a much more lighthearted, fun read than Dai... Something to curl up with for a couple of hours to entertain yourself and feel good. I think of it like a chick flick of movies--for books.

I was editing for about three hours last night, and out of 71 pages, I'm on 5. (WHOO HOO!)

One thing I hate, and writers, if you ever find this blog, feel free to weigh in... Have you ever noticed that when you write a piece, it has a certain tone and style, and then when you go through and edit it, the style and tone changes almost completely? In a way it goes from being "draft" to being "polished" and "professional", but I also feel like it loses something in the editing process, and that was why, for a long time, I never edited my writing when I wrote fanfic.

Here's what I mean... TWatBB is set from a 16 year old's perspective. It's written in a 16 year old's voice. The text is casual and the words smaller, even the descriptions, to help set the tone of the book. But in the editing process, I'll look at it and go, "No... This doesn't sound good. This sounds like a 16 year old wrote it." And then I'll change it.

Here's an example of what I mean. This was the unedited version:

It was an unusually warm summer, and with all of the fans being used in the rest of the house to keep the other rooms cool, the only way to get any air into her stifling second-floor room was to leave her window open and the curtains drawn to let in the late-night breeze. This was, of course, a choice she was quickly regretting as she continued to hear the scuffling outside.

And this is what it turned into:

As she waited in trepidation and fear for another sound, she silently cursed her parents for stealing all of the fans in the house to keep their own room cool in the stifling heat. It was an unusually warm summer, and the only way to get any air into the stuffy second-floor bedroom was to leave her window open and the curtains drawn to let in the late-night breeze—a decision she hadn’t considered as dangerous until she heard the scuffling outside.

The last sentence, especially, I felt like helped give Annabelle her voice for the reader--and yet it was a sentence that as an editor I didn't really feel worked.

Does anyone else ever feel like they lose some of their voice in the editing process?

The Quest of Dai: The Eroe Headed to Kindle!

2011-01-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

Thanks, Amanda Hocking. Your story (and love of Red Bull and Muppets that reminded me so much of myself) has gotten The Quest of Dai: The Eroe one step closer to Kindle. So much closer, in fact, that I finished filling out the paperwork just now and now just need to kick back and wait for it to appear on the Kindle store!

Am I stoked? You bet.

For anyone wondering about Kindle pricing, here are some useful links:
Pricing Guide:
http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry!default.jspa?categoryID=32&externalID=453&printable=true
Royalty Explanation:
http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=393

I still haven't figured out which one of my stories I'm going to work on next, but my husband thinks "The Waif and the Bad Boy," (working title) is the most interesting sounding. So I might just start there...

Kindle publishing

2010-12-31T14:49:00.000-08:00

So, after getting inspired by Amanda Hocking's story, I decided to do two things for 2011:
1. Get The Quest of Dai: The Eroe on Kindle.
2. Put at least a few of my unpublished stories on Kindle.

There are several problems with number two (number one is already on its way--how I love Outskirts Press!).

1. Unlike Amanda, I am not good at "social media." Just check my twitter. Or, ugh, my blog. Which I never update. So I'm not good at "getting the word out."
2. I have panic attacks approaching book bloggers. Seriously, I have horrible anxiety about it.
3. I have something like 6 or 7 different stories (only one of which is pretty much publish-ready) to choose from, and I have no idea where to start.

Regarding number three, I just asked my husband which one HE thought I should start by posting. I gave him a quick overview of each of the stories, and he goes, "Wow. That's a lot to choose from." Which, you know, is no help.

And, every time I think about editing one of the pieces and publishing it for the world to see, I freak myself out and go, "Are you kidding? That piece isn't good enough... No one would ever want to read that!" And yet I love it. So me inducing my own anxiety doesn't help, either.

Also--I seriously want to do re-editing on The Eroe, and yet every time I think of the monumental undertaking (it's over 400 pages!!) I go, "Uggghhh..." You'd think I'd be over that by now, but, no.

If there's anyone reading this blog, I ask you, then. Which would YOU be most interested in reading?

Allies and Rebels -
It was supposed to be a peaceful meeting. A meeting of Ambassadors to sign a treaty ending the decades-long war between the Venus-born and the Earth-born humans. It was the last meeting any of the Venus-born Ambassadors would ever have.
Kaitlyn Dreamer saw it happen. Saw her father's look of resignation seconds before the bomb hit and ended his life. Saw the Ally who could have saved him--but didn't. Saw that he was a Venus-born human, turned traitor to side with the Earth-born. And now Kaitlyn has a plan. Kaitlyn is going to make sure that the traitor pays. Not just with his life, but with the Earth.

(Untitled) -
They were at the top of their class. Prepared to give their lives fighting the Zeyons. And when they were selected for a special mission in space to finish out their training, they were ecstatic.
But they weren't ready to discover the truth behind their mission. They weren't ready to be first crew. And they weren't ready to lose one of their own...

Cisco (Untitled, but this is what I call it) -
Cisco wants to get along with her new step-brother. She wants to like him and live peacefully with him, her mother, and her mother's new husband. She wants to fit in at her new school and possibly get a date with the cute boy in her science class.
Except her step-brother has other ideas. Darkly gorgeous and alluring, Jaden wants Cisco to be much more than a step-sister. And she's not sure how much longer she can resist him...
(Okay, the summary on this one REALLY sucks, but I love this story.)

City High -
Lillian is used to being dumped off on her parent's friends or relatives. She's pretty sure if they could, they'd probably leave her at a homeless shelter just so they could jet across the world to some exotic location. So she's pleasantly surprised when the latest victim of her parent's inconsideration is a cousin just a few years older than she is. Lauren is fun, friendly, and has a great group of friends that are eager to bring Lillian into their circle.There's even the undeniably sexy Jake, whose bad attitude and yet constant consideration can't help but draw Lillian's attention.
And then she gets the feeling that she's being watched.
And then the message on the mirror, written in blood.
And then Lauren's friends start dying off, one-by-one.
With a promise that Lillian is next on the list...

Costin -
Leila should have screamed the moment she recognized the guy who had moved in next door as the same one who had robbed her months earlier.
But she doesn't scream. Instead she allows him to search for some object, with a promise that as soon as he finds it he'll disappear from her life forever. But Leila is about to discover that she holds the key to unspeakable powers. Powers that some are willing to do anything to get.

Lillian (untitled, and yes, I know, I've used the name twice. I like it!) -
Putting a poor girl in a school full of ridiculously wealthy kids is just cruel. At least, that's how painfully shy Lillian DeCole sees it. She doesn't care that her parents scraped together every last penny of their savings just to stick her in the prestigious school of rich snobs. She just wants to go to a normal school, not a place where the kids fly across the country for a weekend shopping trip.
The last thing she expects to do is end up as a maid for one of the elite kids at the top of the social food chain. She doesn't expect him to offer to teach her to dance, which, she admits, she's embarrassingly horrible at. She doesn't expect to get caught up in something that will twist her life up with the Elites forever...

Skilled -
Callie has abilities. Abilities that shot lightning across her living room and tore open her little sister's cheek. When a man appears at their door and promises he can help her learn to control her abilities, she jumps at the chance, even if it means having to go to school in a remote location miles from civilization.
At first she loves the school. Everyone is just like her, with abilities that can do just about anything. She's sure she'll be able to learn to control her ability so she never hurts anyone again.
But then Callie is selected to be a representative with Kaden as her partner, the boy everyone admires and fears. No one knows anything about what happens behind the representative room's closed doors, but what they do know is that most representatives don't last the year. They disappear, and are never seen again. As partners.
With little help from Kaden, who keeps disappearing on his own, Callie's left to sort out the puzzle herself... Before she or Kaden get them both killed...

Star -
Raised in an orphanage with a boy she thinks of as her brother, Star has never had much in her life. No one has ever paid much attention to her.
And then one day she's attacked. By little creatures. And the one who saves her acts like he might try to kill her himself.
Soon Star discovers that her life is much longer than she realizes... And that she's got a whole other world ready for her to rule it.

The Devil Child -
“God, I know someone like you probably doesn’t listen to someone like me… But… if you could… If you could grant me just one thing… I just want these last two years with her. If you grant me just this one thing, I promise… I won’t fight when you send me to hell.”

Kailee Thorman is sure this is going to be the best year of her life.

After years of homeschooling due to his mother's overprotectiveness, her best friend Chase is finally going to go school with her.

But Kailee doesn't expect Chase to have his own set of friends show up at the school.
Friends who call him, "Lord Chasen."
Friends with powers.
Friends who try to kill him.
Because Chase has been keeping a terrible, soul-crushing secret all of these years.
And now Kailee has to decide who she wants to side with--angels, or the demon who has always been at her side.

The Waif and the Bad Boy (this isn't the real name, these are the character types I used when writing it. HA!) -
Annabelle Priestly is at the top of the school's popularity food chain. Her friends set every style, fashion, and fad around. And now she's dating Trevor, the football player next door who she's been in love with since she was a child.
But a chance run-in with Trevor's younger brother Will starts turning Annabelle's world upside down. She likes his reckless, impulsive behavior. Likes the way he listens when she cries. Likes the way he always rescues her whenever she needs someone.
And soon Annabelle isn't sure she wants to be at the top anymore...

Okay, a LOT of these descriptions are REALLY lame, but I'm so bad at summaries...

Also, these are just the complete ones... I have several more in-progress, but oh man, I've been writing these for almost two hours and I'm worn out. So, you know, if you happen to stumble on this blog and you happen to think at least one of these is interesting, let me know! I'll be grateful for the input...

(I think I might just throw all the names into a hat and draw one if no one replies.)

My Best Friends Are Married!

2010-06-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

Warning: Picture-intensive post!!

Two weekends ago my husband and I were in Palm Springs to watch the man who has been my best friend since kindergarten get married to a wonderful woman who couldn't be more perfect for him. I was lucky enough to be part of their wedding party, and it was a beautiful, classic, amazing wedding.

Then just yesterday, another of my best friends got married, and I was given the honor of being her Matron of Honor! And my husband, who has been best friends with the groom for nearly ten years, was one of his groomsmen! (She and I met them at a geek convention almost three years ago, and now we're married! Can you believe it?!) They were married on the water, in a lovely, fun, precious moment that I was blessed enough to get to share with them.

They were such perfect moments that I'd like to share them with all of you. (Special! I'm also including one of my wedding pictures!)

My best friend since kindergarten. I'm second in from the left in the back. He's the groom. ;-)

Walking down the aisle with my best friend's younger brother. (I remember when he was born! I was ten!)

My husband and I at our best friend's wedding.

Us again! Waiting for picture-time and the wedding to start!

Can you imagine a more perfect place to be married? Gorgeous, right?!

My husband and I almost two years ago, on our wedding day. We both look pretty different now!

Love is a beautiful thing, isn't it?

I hope you enjoyed seeing pictures from the weddings, and a couple from mine! <3 After all... It's all about love, isn't it?

~Vivian

The Quest of Dai: The Malo - First Review!

2010-06-03T22:53:00.000-07:00

The Quest of Dai: The Malo has its first review!

From the publisher:

You have such a great writing style. It is always easy to tell when an author spends time with their writing. I have to say that it is obvious that you have done a significant amount planning and preparation in crafting your work. You add details that really add to the credibility of your writing. Right from the start your plot was very engaging. You do a nice job of slowly making your way through the story with details and a certain voice that allows your reader to really interact with the characters (who are all round and very nicely developed.) So many authors rush through their stories without really developing them. Not you. Your book read like a movie in my mind. You have crafted an excellent piece here. You had me hooked by the end of the first chapter! I could not wait to find out what was going to happen to Diamond…

The Quest of Dai: The Malo - BOOK TRAILER

2010-05-13T19:57:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's right, everyone!

"The Quest of Dai: The Malo" is FINALLY COMPLETE! It's headed to the publisher first thing Monday morning (because I'm a control freak and can't let anything go without one last read-through).

But, in the meantime, I present to you...

"The Quest of Dai: The Malo" - the book trailer.

Let me know what you think!!

What I Miss About Bookstores

2010-05-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

I don't remember when it was exactly that I stopped buying books in bookstores.

I'd like to say it was the invention of Amazon, but I think it was prior to that. I think Amazon was just my golden ticket out of my non-reading phase.

No, I think it was around the time I hit 18, and still looked around 12, but was conscientious enough to know that I was older than all the other girls in the "Young Adult" section of Barnes and Noble. Of course, at 18-looking-12, I was probably still well-within the demographic, but I couldn't bring myself to go into the section anymore.

For a while I tried reading more "adult" literature, but I found it way too full of graphic sex and a lot of drivel about adult situations (kids, marriage, how hard life is) that I couldn't get into the books.

So then I quit reading.

Biggest. Mistake. Ever.

When I re-read my pieces during that time period, I can see just how much my writing suffered because of it. I stopped expanding my mind, and therefore, the words that I had used up until then were the same words I continuously used. I no longer had an extended vocabulary. I was limited by what I knew previously, and pretty soon, my writing had regressed to a state of sheer embarrassment.

And worse yet--I missed reading.

With the invention of Amazon, I could buy all the YA titles I wanted--and no one would ever look at me funny. I could spend hours scanning titles and searching for books and making lists about the ones I wanted, and pretty soon, they were all mine with nary a funny look in sight!

But I forgot one thing.

I forgot how important it was to be able to read the first few pages. How much you needed to be able to open up that book and look at the dialogue and hold it in your hand. How important it is for that book to be a tangible thing.

Now, mind you, I still buy all of my books on Amazon. I still read YA novels. I still steadfastly avoid the YA section (not just because of the funny looks anymore, but because most of the books I was seeing for a long time were all realistic fiction about who's stabbing who in the back, and prom, and blah-blah-blah, which is SO not my thing).

But I do miss browsing title-by-title in B&N, looking at each book, reading the back of every one on the shelf, and begging my mom to buy me the armload I carried over to her.

Ahhh... Memories...

Video Killed the... Book Star?

2010-05-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

I love picturing who my characters are going to be played by.

It's a guilty pleasure, but I love it. I don't quite know when it started, really. When I first started writing I pictured it all as a giant anime. And then it slowly evolved into real people.

Now I love when I'm watching TV and I think, "OMG! That person would make a perfect [insert character name here]!" Then I turn to my husband and gush for a few minutes, demanding his opinion.

But you know what's strange? I never do that with other books. Only with mine. Only with Dai, actually... I've never done it with any of the other stories I've written. Maybe if I got as involved with them as I did with Dai, I would start to do it, too. (Maybe once you hit a point where you can recite the manuscript, you start to look for other creative ways to express yourself and your characters?)

So I wonder... Does anyone else picture people from their favorite books? Is this a common thing? Do you picture people from your stories as real-life people?

I Had a Dream Last Night...

2010-05-03T18:35:00.000-07:00

I tend to dream of my cousins rather frequently.

It's rather odd, actually. I don't know why I do it. But I do. There are five of us, all in succession. My sister is the eldest, followed closely (in the same grade) as my sister. Then the next year down is my cousin, then the next year down is me, then the next year down is my younger cousin.

Last night I dreamed my husband and I went to my uncle and aunt's house for dinner for some event (we haven't been there in nearly two+ years) and they were all sitting down to dinner. My husband and I stepped out onto the porch to talk, and my one-year-older cousin stepped out onto the open-air porch to walk by us to go to her car. I looked out to the road they live on and saw all of the parked cars.

And that's all I remember of the dream.

So here's what was interpreted...

Cousins
To see your cousin in your dream, represents something or some aspect of your character that is somewhat familiar. Perhaps you need to spend more time in cultivating and developing some emerging ability or character.

Meals
To see meals in your dream, suggests that you are dwelling too much on trivial matters causing your attention to be diverted from important issues. Alternatively, you may be lacking spiritual enrichment and sensual expression.

Car
To see a parked car in your dream, suggests that you need to turn your efforts and energies elsewhere. You may be needlessly spending your energy in a fruitless endeavor. Alternatively, a parked car may symbolize your need to stop and enjoy life.

Now... This could be talking about work, or it could be talking about my writing. Yesterday at dinner I told my family, "I really believe I have what it takes to make it as a writer. I'm sure a lot of people say that, but I really think I do. I just need to keep at it."

I guess only time will tell, hmm?

I'm big on dream interpretation. Not the whole like, spiritual dream interpretation thing, but I dig analyzing dreams. I love analyzing my friend's dreams. I really think it allows a unique perspective on ourselves--and our friends. ;)

So... anyone have a dream they want to share?

Why Fanfiction Made Me a Better Writer and Gave Me Self-Confidence Growing Up

2010-05-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

It's a guilty pleasure, fanfic.

Everyone loves it. You know you do, too. And everyone loves to write it. What is it about taking characters we love and are established and twisting them into our own little worlds? Why do we want to borrow them and play with them and make them our own--temporarily, of course?

When I was a very, very little girl, maybe eight or so, I read this story about a girl who traveled back in time and met this girl named Suki (that's all I remember) and ended up leaving to go back to her time at the end of the book. I was very crushed at the ending, and I took it upon myself, my number two pencil, and my sheet of wide-ruled paper to make it better. So I spent the next couple of hours working on a two-page continuation of the novel, appending a better ending onto it, where Suki is actually brought forward in time to be with the girl again so they can continue their fun and adventures.

At the time, I had no idea what fanfic was. But since that time, whenever something in a book or story didn't go the way I wanted it to, I just took it upon myself to "fix" it.

I remember when I first discovered what fans had termed "fanfiction." I was around thirteen or so, and I was a huge fan of Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. I was surfing the internet, collecting Buffy quotes and screen caps (because that was all you could get back then--no cool fan vids!) and I found The Slayer Fanfic Archives. It was like stumbling on the holy grail, only cooler. I had found my place in the world. It combined my two favorite things: writing, and Buffy.

I remember spending hours convincing my dad that he should let me upload a story to the site. He was very skeptical. First I had to comb the site and the rules for submission and learn them thoroughly to explain them to him. Then HE had to read them and spend just as much time, if not more, reviewing the site.

And then he smiled at me in our computer room and said, "Sure, why not? Go for it."

I was ecstatic. I had already been writing Buffy fanfic (without calling it that, of course, because I had never heard the term) so it was just a matter of deciding which one to upload to the site. I poured over about thirty different stories, found one I had finished, and decided to submit that.

A few days later, it was up on the site.

And then the e-mails started pouring in.

One-by-one, my inbox slowly started flooding with fan responses to my stories. I was dumbfounded. I remember the first one I got, I started screaming and ran to my dad and cried, "I got a fan mail! Someone liked my story!"

"Good job," he said to me, smiling. "Guess you should keep going, huh?"

Of course I should! He didn't need to tell me! I immediately started writing more, inspired, and began pounding out more stories. More chapters. I learned that cliff-hanger endings would get more responses, so I started ending all of my chapters that way. Pretty soon I had even more fan mail. And I made it my mission to respond to each one individually, because when I would write authors on the site and tell them I enjoyed their work and they responded with a form-letter thank you, it made me sad. (I had taken the time to write them, couldn't they take the time to write me? At the time I didn't realize I was one fan out of probably a dozen+.) Sometimes it would take me an hour to write everyone back, but I would always personalize each e-mail I wrote.

And I loved it. I could go to school and have a horrible day, and go home and have this little secret life that no one knew about. By day I was Vivian Marie, but by night I was this fanfiction author with lots of fans who enjoyed her stories!

It was that encouragement that instilled in me the belief that I could be an author. It was all those e-mails saying, "I love this story! Keep up the great work!" and, "You are such a great writer! I love this!" that made me want to keep pursuing my dream. That made me feel like maybe I did have a chance at making it.

(Of course, much, much later, it dawned on me that they really probably just liked that I was writing about their favorite characters getting together, but I don't let that get me down. <3 )

So while I think fanfiction has this "dirty little secret" quality, I have to say... I love it. I'm proud of it. And I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. So who knows... Maybe the next fanfic you read will actually be written by an author you like...

What Do You Think About When You Write?

2010-05-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to remind myself later when I was editing book three of the Dai series that I've been there, conquered that, so I decided to keep a little Notepad of my thoughts during my final edit of book two.

14 pages in... Let's just say, it's not pretty...

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

2010-05-01

I am on page 7 of 123.

I currently feel like rocking back and forth saying, "I don't wanna, I don't wanna" at the idea of having to edit this thing one. more. time.

I just don't think I can do it again.

But I'm going to.

Because I want it to be DONE.

Also, I'm worried about consistency. I think there are sections of Dai's thoughts I need to take out, which means I need to take a fresh eye at it and start from start to finish.

***

I hate the first two paragraphs. I hate them. They're driving me crazy.

***

In a book written in third-person, in their perspective, is it okay to use "here," and "this"? Or do you always use "there" and "that"?

***

I had to move an entire scene to ten pages later.

***

Page 2 of 123

Three paragraphs in and I hate this. It sounds horrible. All of it. I can't publish this crap.

***

Page 3 of 123

Starting to feel better. I hate descriptions.

...

Starting to feel worse.

"He placed his hand on the door handle, pushed, and was out of the room before she could say another room."

Ugh.

***

You have these sentences that you put in to "catch attention", but in the edit you realize they're more jarring than attention getting, and you have to add modifiers to soften the blow and finesse them in. That's disheartening, because you know what you were trying to achieve, and when you discover it didn't work... *sigh*

***

Page 4 of 123

I remember this feeling. I'd forgotten it. This feeling of, "Oh my god, this is so uninteresting. Why would anyone read this garbage? It's so... boring." It happened to me during my last final edit, too.

Maybe that's how you know it's done?

***

My husband is playing WoW. I want to play WoW. I don't want to edit anymore.

This sucks.

I could just sign in for a couple of minutes...

But I won't. I really, really want to finish this before end of day. Then send it over to my husband tomorrow to read. Then never look at it again.

***

Page 5 of 123

Just changed one of the lines I've had since draft 1. One of the first lines I ever wrote in this whole thing.

Awesome.

Not that I was super attached to it, but it was kind of a defining line for me.

***

Just woke up from a three hour nap. Still don't want to edit anymore. Had a cool dream about vampires that I think I might want to write. Now I REALLY don't want to edit anymore.

***

Just submitted "The Quest of Dai: The Eroe" for the Writer's Digest self-publishing award in the category of young adult.

Weird.

Hope I did it right... It cost $125.

Also... I hope I win. Usually contests pick books that are all like, meaningful. My book isn't meaningful. It's just entertaining.

Ugh.

***

6/123

I feel like I could recite this; I've read it so many ******* times.

***

I think I just turned a nice paragraph into an entire paragraph of run-on sentences in order to cover up a sentence that didn't quite fit.

Nice work, Viv.

***

past? passed? Damn it.

***

*currently trying to figure out how to kill time so I don't have to edit anymore...* Wonder what's happening on General Hospital lately...

***

Can't get into the "writing spirit". It's just not happening. Can't concentrate. Can't focus. DAMN IT. I think I'll write something fun. Considered reading, but I think I need to get into that mind frame. So I will write.

***

That seemed to help...

***

7/123

I have a sudden desire to bake chocolate chip cookies. I never bake anymore.

***

Just changed "six" to "four" throughout the doc. That sucked. Six sounds cooler.

***

Ways to kill time:
Hop on WoW and discuss raid and raids for alts.
Bake a cake. (seriously)

Time check: 5:50 P.M.

***

After the mocking I got about italics in book one, I'm afraid of them. It's probably a good thing, except I think there are some instances where I need them and I didn't put them in. ... I'm putting some of them in. I think there are five in the entire book.

***

8/123

And the reason the final edit gets done... Just turned a sentence that was blase into awesome. Adrenaline gets pumping, excitement kicks in... Happiness, once again.

***

9/123

Note to self: Must remember to format the chapter headings properly.

Note to self: Just remembered I cut a chapter. Must go back and renumber after chapter... something.

Note to self: Must remember to name chapters. Current names of chapters do not match chapter themes. (Damn it...)

Time check: 6:12 P.M.

***

11/123

Discovered "dark" six times in two paragraphs. Cannot think of another way to describe it. Irritated.

Time kill: Looking up pictures of celebrities that may potentially work as the characters.

Time check: 6:55

Time kill: Putting the pictures of the celebrities all onto one wallpaper so you don't have to flip between windows.

Time kill: Cleaning off icons from desktop so you can see the wallpaper you're about to create.

Time check: 7:20 - Done making new background. Motivation!

***

14/123

Time check: 8:30 P.M.

Been reading/editing this whole time.

Gone three pages in an hour and ten minutes?

*sigh*

So... Why Did You Do It?

2010-04-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

I follow a number of blogs--privately--and I just read one blog topic that caught me a little off-guard. Usually I don't read the comments people leave on blogs, but this time I was curious so I kept reading. I've got to say, I was rather disappointed at the responses. (Which isn't to say I don't understand them, but... ouch...)

There's this girl who seems pretty cool (I've never talked to her, but I follow her blog) named Kristi who runs this blog: The Story Siren. (You should check it out, btw.)

Today her post is, "Do you judge a book by it's publisher?"

Naturally, being a self-published author, I was curious. So I began reading.

And cringing.

And cringing some more.

(Go read the blog post, then the rest of my post will make more sense!)

I always wanted to be picked up by a big publishing house, of course. I always wanted an agent to get me a big deal and hold my hand through the publishing process. Doesn't every writer? I don't think most writers start out wanting to be self-published.

But am I unhappy that I'm self-published? No. Did I realize what a stigma there was around self-publishing when I did it? No way. (Of course, I also didn't know about these book blogs when I started, either, and I thought as long as my book was on Amazon, people would magically find it.)

I like being self-published. I am the final gatekeeper for everything that gets put out there. I maintain total and complete control (good or bad) over my book. Whether I fail or succeed in my writing is completely my fault. Are their flaws in my manuscript that would have been caught? Sad to say--yeah. It makes me cringe when I think about it (apparently MS Word thought "lightening" was an acceptable spelling of "lightning"). Are they so ridiculously large that I think the entire book and series isn't worth reading? Well, no, otherwise I wouldn't be embarking on the second one down the same path. Can you tell me you've never found a typo in a big-publishing house book?

I know, I know, I sound all defensive. And I'm not. Or, I am. But I think self-publishing is cool. You have no big house to back you, so you've got to make it on your own. You've got to strike out and earn everything you get. And you have all of these reviewers on- and offline who say, "I don't accept self-published books." --Try generating any sort of interest about your book when no one will read it and you HATE all that shameless self-promotion stuff! And trying to get a bookstore to carry a self-published book? Phew! Good luck with that.

All of these things I didn't know when my dad said he would fulfill my lifelong dream to be published at 24 years old and pay to have the book published for me, since I was out of time to query agents and publishing houses.

But you know what? It was a dream come true and I wouldn't change a thing. <3

hack hack hack - There Goes Your Novel

2010-04-29T21:24:00.000-07:00

*type type type type type*

*type type type type type*

*type type type type type*

"BEAUTIFUL! WONDERFUL! THIS IS EXACTLY THE DIRECTION THIS BOOK SHOULD GO!"

*type type type type type*

*type type type type type*

*ty...pe... ty...pe... t...y...p...e... t...y...p...*

"Crap."

(The above is an actual demonstration of real life events.)

So, what does all of that mean?

Well... There is almost nothing quite as heartbreaking as a writer as when you're on page, say, seventy, of your first draft and you realize that you can't go any further in the story because you've backed yourself completely in a corner--or gone in a completely different direction than the story was supposed to go--and then find yourself slowly, with tears in your eyes, deleting the last thirty-forty pages of what you spent the last few days writing.

Not that you want to, of course... You'll fight it. You'll try to convince yourself that it DOES work. That you just need to approach the story from a new angle. That those scenes you're so in love with ARE necessary for the plot and the characters. That it all HAD to happen that way. But eventually, and I hate to be the one to break this to you, you'll realize it's just not true. It's time to kiss those scenes goodbye and realize they will, sadly, never see the light of day.

So why do this, you might ask? Why not just let the story flow naturally? Why not use an outline so this doesn't happen to you? Why force yourself into something?

There are many reasons.

You did use an outline, and you hit all your key points, but now your next book won't work. (Yay for series!)
You evolved your characters so much that they're unrecognizable and wouldn't get to the next set of "key points" they need to get to.
You didn't hit all of your key points because you WERE trying to write naturally, and now you've got giant plot holes and no way to fill them.

So... what do you do when this happens?

If you're anything like me, you save a draft of your writing (SAVE THAT DRAFT! YOU WILL THANK ME LATER!), and then you remove the section and start back from the point where the characters started to deviate from the progression they needed to follow.

This may feel forced and unnatural, and it will. There's no getting around it. So you'll go back through and edit, revise, edit, revise, fill it, edit, revise, change things... (That's another story.) But eventually, it WILL flow naturally. Really.

And pretty soon you'll have a manuscript that you can be proud of, because you worked twice as hard for it. (Or eight times as hard... As is my current revision number.)

How about you? Have you ever had to start over from almost the beginning?

Writing the "Necessary"

2010-04-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

The "necessary" scenes.

What, you may ask, is a necessary scene? It's quite simple, really:

A scene crucial to your plot.
A scene crucial to your character's development.
A scene crucial to the development of other characters and their relationship with the main character.
A scene you really, really don't want to write.

In writing book two of "The Quest of Dai," I found myself flooded with "necessary" scenes. These scenes that needed to be in the book because, really, without them, there would be no plot. No story. No forward motion. It would have mostly been a lot of Dai whining. (She whines less in this one. Really! I'll talk about that later.)

But those sound like the interesting scenes, right? The exciting scenes! The scenes where things happen!

Well... They are. And that's why they're necessary.

Before I go on, let me tell you a little bit about me: I'm a very fast reader. I'll skim books for my favorite character's names to appear on the page together. I don't like it when my main characters aren't in the same scene together. Yes, I know, this is vaguely obsessive, but maybe I have issues. (I prefer to think of myself as a romantic, for the record.) I don't like a lot of description in books. I'll gloss over it and get right to--what I consider--the good stuff.

So. Back to the "necessary" scenes.

Book two is almost entirely a "necessary" scene.

Every day required a constant string of motivation to push myself to sit down and write. (Especially once I realized that it was all going to have to be completely redone--but that's another story.) Every day I had to force myself to write the "necessary" so when I did get to the good stuff, it would be that much more rewarding.

Patience is not something I possess in spades, I'm afraid.

So how do you push yourself to write the "necessary"? How do you make yourself keep going when you want to throw in the towel?

For me, I set up my desktop background with a picture of a scene I really wanted to write. A scene I was dying to write. And every time I wanted to quit and give up, I looked at that picture and said to myself, "Nope. I WILL get to that scene!" And then I kept going.

...there were also the times where I wrote in scenes that I then promptly took out, because they ended the plot/book WAY too soon and were completely out of character for EVERYONE, but satiated my need to get out of the "necessary" and to the good stuff for a few minutes. But that's also another story.

So do you have "necessary" scenes? Do you have a way to push yourself through them?

Why Editing is Much Harder Than They Say

2010-04-27T23:38:00.000-07:00

Picture this:

You write a paragraph that says exactly what you want it to say. It sounds good. It captures all the feelings and emotions that you want it to. It flows well. Everything is good with the paragraph.

You hit the "Enter" key. Type a new paragraph. The same thing happens! A good paragraph! As a writer, you're pleased.

Now you go back to the first paragraph. You read it. Realize you've got a run-on sentence. That you used the word "uneasy" twice in just as many paragraphs. That while you can "hear" the pauses in the sentence in your head, your reader might not.

So you rework the paragraph. It flows even better! It sounds incredible! It's a work of art! How could you have thought it was so good the first time? The revision is so much better.

Then you move on to paragraph two. Discover that you now need a new word for "dark" to describe, well, dark, because you had to add it in to paragraph one to help the flow. Now paragraph two has some verb-tense confusion. Can you use the word "here" in someone's thoughts if they're not in italics? The word "there" doesn't fit as well, but you're not really sure. So you rework the paragraph again to remove those little gray areas.

But now paragraph two is only two sentences long. What idea were you trying to convey again? You write the paragraph over. But now you're using the same words you used in paragraph three.

...and the cycle repeats.

Throughout this editing process, it has not been uncommon for me to spend 45 minutes, or more, working and reworking three to four paragraphs at a time.

It's a frustrating, grueling, borderline-torturous process. There have been times where I have considered just skipping the paragraphs altogether. "It's a style," I've said to myself, during this process. "So it's a run-on sentence. So I've used a bunch of phrases that aren't complete thoughts. So I've used the same word twice within a paragraph of each other! It's my style! It's my voice!"

But it was always just the frustration talking. (See? Frustrating--twice!) It was always laziness trying to thwart my attempts to produce the best manuscript I'm capable of writing.
(BTW... That sentence WAS "It was always laziness trying to thwart my attempts to push myself to put out the best possible manuscript I could write." See what I mean about editing?)

Editing is taking your draft and refining it, streamlining it, embellishing it, and building on it to create a finished manuscript. It's taking the ideas and concepts from your draft and basically starting from scratch. Does that sound daunting? It is. Does it sound miserable? I'd be lying if I said there weren't times I nearly cried. Do you have to force yourself to do it every. single. day? You bet.

It's not fun. It's work. It's hard work. You finish writing your piece and say, "It's perfect! It's wonderful! It's complete!" and then you want it to be done. You've told your story. But did you tell it WELL? Did you do it justice?

(Before you answer that, you should note that I firmly believed I had done my story justice until I started on the editing path.)

There's this thing that happens to your brain when you're editing. Suddenly you're not just reading a story for enjoyment. You're reading it objectively--looking at it for flaws. Did what the character say make sense? Is there consistency within the story? Did you use correct grammar? Will your reader understand what you were saying?

It's almost a negative way of looking at your writing--and in a way it's a little rough on the ego. You thought your piece was SO GOOD, and suddenly you realize, "I should have said this better..." and, "What was I thinking here?"

What I'm saying isn't anything new. Any book on writing will tell you these things.

There are times where you absolutely want to give up and throw in the towel and say, "No more. No more. I will not do this anymore." But it gets strangely addictive, refining and revising your work. Suddenly you find yourself wondering, "How else can I phrase this? I bet there's a better word for this..." And next thing you know half an hour has gone by on thesaurus.com.

Maybe some day I'll open up some of my original drafts. (I just finished what I've affectionately titled THE BIG EDIT, aka version 7 of book two.) Then you'll be able to see a side-by-side comparison of where it started, and where it ended. I think you'll be astonished at how much it changed.

(It should be noted here that the content also SIGNIFICANTLY changed from the original book two to the current version. That's a completely different topic and a post that will have to wait for another day.)

Because, for now, the editing must continue...

Publisher Engaged!

2010-04-25T08:49:00.001-07:00

As promised, yesterday, 2010.04.24, I e-mailed my publisher to get the publishing process started. It's not quite submit-ready yet, but it's pretty close, and let me just say... not to brag or sound all conceited, but I'm feeling pretty good about this one.

I'll post more later. Just wanted to say that I made good on my word, and I can't wait to share what this has been like with everyone. <3

The Quest of Dai: The Malo

2010-04-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

That's right! The official title of book two in The Quest of Dai series is "The Quest of Dai: The Malo"!

And, to celebrate the book's upcoming release, I thought I would share one of my favorite scenes from the new book. <3

Happy Easter! Happy April 4th!

The Quest of Dai: The Malo - The Ball