Research and Reminders

I have been heavily revising and editing my YA horror Phobic, about a girl who finds out the truth about the murder her mother committed and also has a haunted house, and I just want to give a shout out to my awesome CP's:  Morgan Shamy, Elizabeth Briggs, Anne Pfeffer, and Juliana Brandt. You guys--there are no words. What would I do without you?

Most of the research I do for my writing is online. Thank you, Google! I've never really done any in person, aside from asking my brother who works in the ER and my other brother who is an ex-cop, and my other brother who is in the military. 

Anyway, there is a scene in my book where the fire department is on hand and Liz was like---are you sure? Cuz that does NOT seem like it would happen. (Don't want to give away too much, since it's kinda the FINAL scene.)

I had the thought as I was writing it too, whether it was believable or not. SO NOT BELIEVABLE. So then I had to do something a little scary. I called the fire department!!! Aaah! Okay, so it wasn't that scary. The fire chief was a little surprised when I told him I was writing a book and needed to check a fact, but he was more than willing to go along with it. And I felt so proud afterward! I'm an OFFICIAL FACT CHECKER FOR MY WRITING!!!

Have you guys ever done any in-person research? Was it scary at all or fun?

Also, a reminder!!! The bloghop I'm co-hosting with Theresa Paolo starts on Thursday! If you haven't already, sign up below! We hope you'll join in on the fun!!! Here's the link to the original post, it's going to be a blast! Get your shelved WIP's ready, guys!! :D

SCBWI Conference in Boise

Hello all! Sorry I haven't been around to blogs much this past week, but I'm hoping to have more time to check out your awesome posts! I went to the SCBWI Conference in Boise and it was excellent. They had some great speakers so I thought I would highlight a few key points.

Alane Ferguson has written tons of books, including a series called the Mysteries in Our National Parks and the Sleuth Forensics series, and she was such a riot. She talked about her life and what inspired her as a writer. My favorite thing was her two common problems to avoid for the opening of your book, which for me is the hardest part!

1. Too much back story. Alane said the hook time, especially for kids, is shorter and shorter, and we only get two paragraphs to snag their attention. TWO PARAGRAPHS? Yikes! But I've heard this from agents too, to wait and add back story in until after we make readers care about our characters first. TOUGH!

2. Make sure dialogue and setting are necessary. Is it something your character will notice? Or are you throwing that tree in there for your purposes? An interesting thought.

Sarah Tregay (author of Love and Leftovers--if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. Such great writing and a cute love story) and Kate Kay Meyers (author of The Vanishing Game, haven't read it but want to) did a session on their path to publication. Good stuff.

My favorite was meeting Kate Testerman, literary agent with KT Literary. Kate was adorable. She was super nice and  very knowledgeable. She did a workshop on queries and said she has over 200 unread emails in her inbox over the past two weeks or something like that!!!! :O  I can't imagine getting that many emails--no wonder agents are so busy! Kate suggested we look up her 10 Steps Before You Query video from WriteOnCon last year and she also went into the hook for a query, which, for me, is super hard to come up with!  One big thing Kate said to NEVER do in a query is to start with a question like, "Did you ever wonder if..." Because it opens things up for the agent to say NO right off the bat--the last thing we want!

Overall, it was an excellent day. So fun to mingle with other writers. But I especially liked meeting Kate and getting her feedback on my first ten pages. She helped so much! In case you're interested, here's her video on querying. It's seven minutes long, but if you're (like me) getting ready to query soon, it's well worth your time:

Such good points!!! I especially like her suggestion about preparing a spreadsheet.

Anyway, hope you all have an awesome week!! :D

Lucky 7

I've been tagged several times for the Lucky 7 Meme, which has been so awesome.

The 7-7-7 Challenge:


Flip to page 77 of your current WIP.
Find line 7.
Post the 7 sentences that follow.
Tag 7 more writers.

And I truly apologize if you tagged me and I never passed it on yet--I remember at the time for some reason or another I didn't have the time to respond, since I usually only post once a week! And another reason I never responded is because the 77th page of my WIP doesn't have a line 7, since it lands on a chapter ending!

Okay, enough excuses. This time Juliana Brandt, fabulous blogger and mega-awesome critique partner, tagged me, but I'm going to cheat since I don't have a 7th line on my 77th page!

I'll do my 78th page, wacka wacka.

“Piper, I’m sorry. I really had no idea. And I don’t like her anymore.”

A sound clogs out of my throat, halfway between a sob and a laugh. “Feelings aren’t like brakes in a car, Todd. You can’t just stop.”

I punch through the doors, down the hall and outside. The air has cooled slightly, and traffic streams down the busy street. Sniffling again, I pound the sidewalk toward the bus depot. I’m about a block down when several horns bleep, and I peer over my shoulder.

Todd, in his little red pickup, inches slowly on the street beside me. At least three cars are stuck behind him. It’s like he’s the beginning float in a piss-people-off parade. He rolls down his window and sticks out his bottom lip.

Now to pass it on!

1. Megan Wittman
2. Tobi Summers
3. M.J. Fifield
4. Nick Wilford
5. Rek
6. Cherie Reich
7. Jaye Robin Brown

If you've already been tagged, don't feel obligated or anything! Just thought I'd pass it on!! :D (And yikes if I tagged you and you tagged me first. So if that happens, SORRY!! Lol!)
BTW--If you haven't signed up to do the DUST IT OFF BLOGHOP click here to do it! Join in on the fun!

You Pribbling, Knotty-Pated Wagtail! (Can't You Feel the Love?)

Before I get to my super awesome post, I have a teeny announcement.

Ta dum:

I FINISHED MY WIP YESTERDAY!!!!! Hooray!! It does need some editing, of course, which my AWESOME CPs are helping me with. But it's just so refreshing to write the final sentence. 

And as part of my research for this project, I needed to find insults from the 1800's. And I came across http://www.workitla.com/2011/12/insults-from-1800s.html. Not that I'm huge into insulting people or anything (really, I'm not), but the combinations are insanely fun to say, so I thought I'd share. Why can't we be this creative anymore, lol? :-p (Thou beslubbering, beef-witted barnacle!)

So all you saucy, tickle-brained strumpets, what's your favorite combination? :D

Cover Love

During Rachael Harrie's Blogging Campaign (which has got to be the coolest thing ever, she's why I've met so many of you awesome people!!) I won a book cover design from the fabulous Shelley Coon. You HAVE to check out her other work here and here. She is completely amazing!!

I'm so in love with this cover for my YA fantasy STOLEN TEARS, which I'll be querying in a few weeks after I get an agent's feedback on my first ten pages. (I signed up for a critique at the SCBWI conference in Boise this month--incidentally, anyone else out there going?) Anyway, here is the gorgeousness:

I can't stop looking at it! I've set it as the wallpaper on my computer! Now I half want to self-publish my book so I can use this beautiful cover, lol!! (But I do want to try my hand at the traditional way first, ha ha.) Anyway, hope you all enjoy it, and go bebop over and check out Shelley's work. She's amazing!

Poor Shelley, I had a hard time telling her what I pictured it because I'd never really pictured it before! But I gave her my query and she whipped out two versions. Both were awesome, but this one really resonated with me!! Shelley also has a blog/website here.

Have you ever done covers for your WIPs before?

I'm At a Loss

So I usually post on Mondays, and I'm PANTSING THIS POST!!

Because I'm drawing a blank about what the topic should be about!! LOL (Random thought, how can you DRAW a blank? Hence the cliched phrase, I guess.)

So I'll turn it back to you!!

How do you find your blog topics? Do they just come as you go about your writing week and you get inspiration? Do you make a list as ideas come to you? I totally need to do that.

Another question on my mind lately: So many of you are writers AND have a blog AND kids AND/OR have jobs. How do you manage your time? I'm just curious, because it seems I try really hard to comment on blogs and it takes up several hours sometimes, and yet it seems like I'm always behind! And then I have to take days sometimes before I can squeeze in time to check more blogs. I want to know how you awesome people do it!!

(<---- Just hafta say, these pants are super cute. I'd wear em. Except for the stringy ties.)

So if you're willing, spill! Please! :D

(Btw, had no idea there were laws against saggy baggy pants, but I guess after finding this picture-----> there are!!)