Darkspell's Book Cover!

This is what the fantastic Jaimey Grant has been up to (still working on it):

Super cover artist Jaimey has taken what I started and added magic!

Can you see Alex, my MC, staring at you?

That, my dearies, is my 11 year old son.

I manipulated his face on my PAINT program.

Yup. Paint. Not Photoshop.

I really need to update myself, don't I?

I promise, I will!

How cool does the cover look?

It is wicked awesome!

Releases fall of 2011!

Put Your Words On a Diet

Last Tuesday I finished the third draft of my latest masterpiece, tallied up the word count, and nearly fell off my chair when it weighed in at a whopping 92,000.

Ow! I gotta cut back on the cream puffs.

There's a range of opinion on appropriate word count for a manuscript, but for middle grade and a first-time author, 92,000 is too high. I can just see the literary agent reading the first line of my query, groaning, and clicking the delete button.

I'd like to get rid of 10,000 words. 15,000 would make me really happy. But that's 40 - 60 pages! Four to six chapters!

What am I going to do?

First of all, I can cut extra phrases from my sentences. I love to tack on extra phrases like this: "He ran down the street and hid under a hedge that was next to a fire hydrant." Who needs to know that the hedge was next to a fire hydrant? CHOP!

I can also prune my dialog. If I let them, my characters would sit around, chatting all day, and never get to the story. Much of it is charming, but I'm on a word diet. CHOP! CHOP!

Another temptation I have is to show my characters going through their daily routines. If nothing important happens until after lunch, then why do I need to show them brushing their teeth, making their bed, eating breakfast, walking to school... CHOP!

Then in each scene itself, I tend to do some throat-clearing before I get to the point. And after the action, my characters want to sit around and discuss what just happened. There's a screenwriting principle called "in late and out early." If I start each scene as close to the action as possible, then cut out as quick as I can, that's more words to CHOP!

If all this doesn't work, I may have to resort to plot surgery. Yes, as much as I'd hate to admit it, there may be a subplot that needs to go.

I'm waiting for my test readers to give me their opinions while I sharpen up my axe. I'll let you know how the chopping goes.

Where do you find words to chop?

You may be a writer if...

I know it's been ages since I've posted here. Since I'm too sleep deprived to think of anything intelligent to say, let's play this game instead. I think it was Josie Kilpack who said:

"... you know what a rejection letter sounds like going down the toilet"
"... you know what a rejection letter sounds like going down the garbage disposal"

Ones I thought of:

"...you've rewritten every Oscar winning movie ten times (even though you've only written the first third of your own novel)"
"...you still talk to the imaginary friend you've had since you were six"
"...you know exactly which pockets in your cargo pants can hold a trade paperback, which can hold a mass market paperback, and which can hold a netbook"

I'm sure you all can do better!

Not So Shocking

My mischievous magazine story is now published! You can read it online here:

http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=2788

And see the cute illustration of me being devious here:

http://magazine.byu.edu/issues/134/2788/4292.jpg

Button Coolness

Fellow Cove Members - I fixed the buttons! Yay! So, see that social media bar at the bottom of the post? You can now click on those to tweet this post (or FB or whatevs).

Now, it's easier for me to share all your cool stuff.

That is all.

p.s. I used this post if you want to do it for your other blogs.

Happy Mother's Day and a fun Video!

A music video for our LDStorymaker's writer's conference, lyrics by Krista Lynn Jensen, directed by Stephanie Fowers, Cinematography by Stephanie and Jacqueline Fowers, assistant directed by Sandra Barton, computer graphics by Jacqueline Fowers. Starring: Heather Moore, Jessica Day George, Melissa J. Cunningham, Elizabeth Mueller, Krista Anglesey Jensen, Frank Cole, Marion Jensen, LeAnn Setzer, Josi Kilpack, Jaime Theler, Debbie Hulet, Crystal Liechty, Michelle Holmes, Sarah and Paul Eden

I'm in this video--fun! :) 

Happy Mother's Day!

Never Tell Me The Odds

I posted today about Encouraging Young Writers, and tried to justify encouraging young people to write when it seems like publishing is so hard. (Answer: they are two different things.) But fellow Cove Pirate Rebecca has challenged me to defend the statement in my newsletter that There's never been a better time to be a writer.

Game on!

(Rebecca was really very nice about it.)

As Rebecca put it, these are the best of times and worst of times, and like the famous quote, it depends on your perspective on events.

If you want to be a NYTimes Bestselling Author ...

...and you're not published yet? Probably the worst of times. The route through traditional publishing is looking more and more like a pipeline so constricted that it's cutting off the flow of many, many authors seeking publication. Yes, wonderful authors are still making it through the gauntlet - I couldn't be happier for them, and support the ones I love like crazy (especially if I know them). Yet many wonderful authors are not making it through. I've heard many How-I-Left-My-Agent stories lately, and they're often due to inability to sell (wonderful) stories. This isn't the agents fault - if anyone's caught in the squeeze, it has to be them, with their livelihood depending on betting on the one horse that will win this year.

If you want to write a novel ...

...and you've never written fiction before? Absolutely the best of times! There are so many online resources and so much writerly support. In terms of learning the craft, getting feedback on writing, having abundant people that want to help and support you...writing in 2011 rocks over any time in recorded history. My brother endeavored to be a novelist 20 years and ended up putting it aside out of frustration with the publishing process (it was hard, even then!). But he follows my writing adventures with admiration and a little jealousy, because he can't believe how much support and resources I have access to. I keep trying to tempt him back into the waters, but so far no luck.

If you want to make a living at being a novelist...

...and you've only got one or two novels under your belt? Probably the worst of times. Don't quit the day job, because the days of fat advances (if they ever existed) are no more. Getting a publisher to take a chance on you and grow you as an author? That doesn't seem to happen much anymore either (except with small publishers). As an author, you need to manage your own career (or possibly get an agent to help, although agents caught in the squeeze may not be able to do that either).

If you want to make a living at being a novelist...

...and you're willing to be innovative and entrepreneurial? So the best of times! With e-books raging across the publishing landscape and self-publishing gaining more respect every day (I recently ran across an old posting about self-publishing that likened it to career suicide. This was before Amanda Hocking), for the author that's willing to wade in and take risks, there's lots of rewards possible. Note I said possible, not probable, but a door that used to be locked tight is now cracking open. When even traditionally published authors are turning to e-publishing...because it makes them more money... you know something fundamental is shifting. I see authors putting their backlists on e-books once the rights revert to them, and they start making money (sometimes serious money) from something the traditional publishing world deemed unworthy of print. I see friends whose books have garnered agents, but failed to get book deals, self-publishing and finding their audiences in innovative ways. I see the ground shifting, and it's moving in a direction that directly connects writers and readers. Not everyone thinks this is good, but I think it's inevitable, so getting on board the train before it leaves the station is a better strategy than trying to plug the pike with your pinkie.

There's so much NEW going on in publishing, I can't capture it all in one post. In spite of the odds, I'm still pursuing traditional publication. And I'm also exploring ways to capitalize on the wave the roiling under our writerly feet.

And I truly believe there's never been a better time to be a writer. :)

Becoming a Finisher

Last weekend I had the amazing priviledge of accompanying my husband to a Time Out for Women event in San Antonio. TOFW is hosted by Deseret Book, the publishing arm of the LDS church. It's a great event for women to escape their sometimes mundane or demanding routines and have some time to refresh and be inspired by speakers and musicians. My husband was the invited singer for Friday night, and since I grew up in Texas and love San Antonio in particular, I decided to tag along.

I learned many things over the weekend which I would love to have the time to share. But in case I don't get the opportunity, I want to share at least one thing which is already making a huge difference in my life. The theme for this year's TOFW is "Choose to Become," and as attendees, we were asked to choose one thing that we could implement in our lives that would help us to get a little closer to the woman we are supposed to become. I have chosen to become a finisher.

That may seem like an odd or a simple thing, but it dawned on me this weekend that one of my biggest problems is I am not a finisher. I got this idea from a book I bought at the event about parenting. One of the chapters was about teaching our children how to be finishers. As I read, I suddenly realized, that is the reason I have a hard time keeping house. I don't finish tasks. I start a lot of things, like dishes, and meals, and projects, but I never quite fully finish them, which includes the clean-up part. I get distracted or burnt out or just lazy. If I am going to teach my children to be finishers, I have got to learn how to do it myself.

So not only am I doing the dishes, now, I am drying and putting them away and tucking the drainer under the sink. The counters and table are wiped, the chairs at the table are pushed in. I'm seeing this little lesson in every nook and cranny of my activities, now, and I'm realizing just how far-reaching this concept is. Not only do I need to finish my household tasks correctly, but I have to learn to finish my interactions with others correctly, finish keeping the commandments correctly, finish my life correctly. When I sweep up the last emotional bits and pieces of my life and tuck the broom away for the last time, I want to have that same satisfaction, knowing that I completed my assignment the right way, down to the very last step.

Newsletter Debut

Hey all, just a quick note: I'm running a giveaway on my blog Ink Spells to celebrate my newsletter debut! Hop over and check it out! :)