Kickstarter campaign underway for the next E.M. Tippetts novel

As many of you know, I've got two writing careers. I've gone the traditional route as a science fiction and fantasy author and sell short stories to magazines, sub novels to agents and editors, and have been working on that for over a decade. Then last year I watched the indie movement get underway and really wanted to jump in an join the fun. So I revived my old chick lit pen name, E.M. Tippetts, and indie published two novels.

The rest, as they say, is history. Fans have been so incredibly supportive and I make a very respectable supplementary income from my novels. Now I'm in the final edits of my next project, and I'm turning again to my fans for some support. I would really like to get a Kirkus Indie review for this next project, so I've launched a Kickstarter campaign to cover the cost.

For those of you who don't know Kickstarter, it is a fantastic resource for independent artists of all stripes. This'll be my first campaign, but not the last, I hope!

 

Bookstore Inspiration

Sometimes writers need a little inspiration, a kick to propel them forward. When I feel like my writing time becomes sluggish and I lack motivation, I head to the bookstore. It doesn’t matter which one, even the library works, as long as there are scads of books, that’s where I gravitate.



Once there, I head to the YA section. Why? Because I like YA, I read YA, but more importantly, I write YA. Then, I look for books written by my friends, and I stare at the shelf, imprinting the image of their book sitting there in the wild, waiting to be claimed by some hungry reader. And then I imagine mine perched on the shelf, shiny and full of promise. Let’s call it tangible hope—the kind you can wrap your hands around and smell. And that’s just what I do. I pick up their amazing creations, crack the covers and inhale hope.

I’ve spent hours this way, roaming from one book to the other, and then I leave, stuffed with optimism and hungry, too. Hungry for my day when my books will stand next to these others, ready to fill someone’s cravings, or maybe even bring them hope in the form of bookstore inspiration.

Intentional Reading

I read as much as I can, but it never seems like I have enough time. My TBR list on Goodreads stands at an impossible 150 books! But I've recently taken a slightly different approach to my precious reading time, and it's paying benefits for my writing.

First of all, my TBR list is crazy big because whenever I hear someone suggest a good book, I throw it on there. Then I classify it with a "shelf" description: I have 37 different shelves, ranging from "writing" to "young adult-paranormal-werewolves." Before you write me off as hopelessly OCD, these shelves have been fantastically helpful for intentional reading. This is what I call looking for a book with a specific purpose in mind - either a new MG book to review for my blog, a new writing book to bump up my craft, or books similar to my current WIP.

For the manuscript I just launched, Byrne Risk, I intentionally read three different books (Hunger Games, Dark Life, Inkheart) and analyzed them before launching into my final draft revisions. I read each of these books with a specific purpose in mind. Hunger Games has a similar "rebellion fiction" theme to my novel; Dark Life is a recently published dystopian SF MG novel, also similar to Byrne Risk; and Inkheart has multiple POVs, including an adult POV, again similar to my novel. I read these books with writerly intent, looking for lessons I could learn and apply to my manuscript.

It worked so well, I'm trying it again, this time for my young adult paranormal WIP. I'm reading White Cat, Evermore, and Paranormalcy - books culled from my expansive TBR list (under "ya-paranormal-powers") and relevant to my WIP. I'm only 40 pages into White Cat, but I'm already gleaning lessons on characterization (Holly Black is an amazing writer!).

How do you use reading to juice your writing?