Blog Hills, 90210

It's Wednesday again! Time for my update:

Writing News:
I'm still knee deep in revisions for Killing Kessler. This seems like a never-ending process. How can something that seemed so perfect two months ago now seem to need so much more revising? Will it ever be ready? I truly don't know.

Contest News:
Carolina Valdez Miller at Carol's Prints and Sara McClung at Babbling Flow are both giving away ARCs!

Ann at Inkpots n' Quills is giving away signed copies of The Lacuna and The Poisonwood Bible!

Since I just found out about these today, and this post is already a day old, I'll be sure to mention these contests again next week.

Blogfest News:
DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude hosts the High Drama Blogfest/Giveaway on Saturday, August 7.

Lilah Pierce at Thoughts by Lilah Pierce hosts The Funniest Blogfest Ever on Wednesday, September 1.

And an Award:
Today I'll be bestowing the Blogger BFF Award which was given to me by Lynn at Place to Create and Jen at unedited. Thanks, Lynn and Jen! I'd like to pass this award to Old Kitty at Ten Lives and Second Chances and Anne at Piedmont Writer.

I love Old Kitty's take on the world, and her wonderful Charlie pictures! Her comments always make me smile, they're like getting a great big hug!

Anne is a talented writer who shares her work generously on her blog. I always look forward to Anne's Something-Something posts for my chance to catch up with Genna and Tony.

That's it for me. Happy Wednesday, All!

Hard to Say Goodbye

Last week I finished The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, and now I'm counting the days until my pre-ordered copy of Mockingjay arrives. While there are many reasons I'm anxious to continue with Suzanne Collins's wonderful Hunger Games trilogy, mostly I just can't wait to get caught up with the characters again. They're people I want to spend time with, people I wish I knew. That, to me, is the number one reason I love certain books.

My sister tells about how, when she was much younger, she actually searched for doorways into Narnia. She wanted to go there with Edmund, Lucy, Peter, and Susan, to be part of their adventures. Now her son cries when he finishes each Maximum Ride book because he so wants to be part of the flock and fly away with Max and her family of mutant bird kids. I know how he feels. I feel the same way about Katniss and Peeta and Gale. Okay, so I didn't actually cry when I finished Catching Fire, but I have been thinking about it ever since.

I know I've already asked about favorite characters, but do any come to mind that felt like old friends, that it actually hurt to say goodbye to? What is your favorite quality in a character?

I Write Like James Joyce

I heard about this website over at Christi Goddard's Torch in the Tempest blog today, and I've been playing with it ever since. You paste in a sample of your writing, and it analyzes the sample and tells you which famous author you write like. Christi suggested plugging in just one chapter at a time (to avoid crashing the internet), so I analyzed the first thirty chapters of Killing Kessler, my YA paranormal romance, and the first thirty chapters of In the Seventeenth Year, my epic fantasy.

I expected the results to be vastly different, since the two are written in completely different styles. I was surprised to find that James Joyce came up most frequently in both books: 6 out of 30 chapters in Killing Kessler and 15 out of 30 chapters in In the Seventeenth Year. Okay, this knowledge probably isn't going to make or break my career, but it was fun to play around with.

So who do you write like? Find out here, and I'd love to hear your results!

The Young and the Blogless

It's Wednesday again, time for news and an award, so let's get right to it:

Writing news:

I'm about halfway through yet another revision of Killing Kessler. I've been reading Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon and trying to apply what I've been learning (especially the section on imagery - great stuff!) I'm also trying to incorporate what I've learned from KarenG's and Marcia Hoehne's wonderful critiques - thanks so much, ladies!

Reading news:

I'm not typically a fast reader, but I raced right through The Hunger Games and am now thoroughly engrossed in Catching Fire. I don't know how I'll last until August 24 to read Mockingjay. If you haven't read this series yet, I highly recommend you run out and buy it right now! And no, no money was exchanged for this endorsement. :)

Contest news:
KarenG from Coming Down the Mountain will buy, read, and review one lucky winner's book. This contest is open to authors with at least one book for sale. Karen will be offering more giveaways in her Let-tuce Be Writers Contest Countdown.

Al from Publish or Perish is celebrating his one-year blogiversary by giving away three 8"x10" prints of photographs from his blog. Al lives in Australia and posts the most amazing photographs. Whether you're a contest enterer or not, Al's blog is well worth a visit!

Two of my dearest blogging friends, Sharon Mayhew at Random Thoughts and Jackee Alston at Winded Words, will be giving away prizes throughout the month of July, including a grand finale prize of a group of gift cards. Good luck to all!

Marcia Hoehne gives away two 1000 word critiques each month. Marcia is an author, freelance editor, and teacher for The Institute of Children's Literature. Her contests begin on the third Thursday of each month, so that's tomorrow! I won this critique last month and it was so helpful!

Award news:

Today I'd like to give away the Blogger Buddie Award given to me by the lovely E. Elle at The Writer's Funhouse. I'd like to pass this award on to:

Aubrie at Flutey Words. Aubrie is not only a prolific author and amazing flutist (check out the link Aubrie left in her comment below to see for yourself - truly amazing!), but she also created the Fantasy/Sci Fi Blogger Award and passed it out to bloggers whose blogs promote the genres of Fantasy and Science Fiction. When I first saw this award, I knew I had to have it, and Aubrie was kind enough to pass it my way. If any other fantasy/sci fi writers out there don't have the Fantasy/Sci Fi Blogger Award but would like to, just visit Aubrie and let her know.

How cool that she created her own award to support those in the fantasy/sci fi genre! Thanks, Aubrie!

That's it for me. Have a great Wednesday Everyone!

Back to Reality

Now that was a whirlwind three weeks! I can't even believe my break is over. My youngest starts school this week, so I guess it's time to get back into the routine. But I had an awesome time with my family, made some serious progress on yet another revision of Killing Kessler, and I think I'm ready to get back to reality.

Even when I was on break, I had some great news over these three weeks - I received prizes from three blog contests!

First, Marcia Hoehne critiqued the first one thousand words of Killing Kessler. Her suggestions were right on and her encouraging words came at a time when I really needed to hear them. Thanks so much, Marcia! And don't forget to enter her next contest. Marcia gives away two critiques every month.


I won an earring and bracelet set made by the talented Jo Schaffer from Shoveling in a Jo Storm. I told Jo I'd like blue and brown beads with silver, and she took it from there. Isn't it gorgeous? Thanks so much, Jo!


I also won an ARC of Hero on Michelle Hodkin's blog. I am completely wrapped up in Catching Fire from The Hunger Games trilogy right now (love it! love it! love it!), but I can't wait to dive into Hero as soon as I'm finished! Thank you, Michelle!

One thing I've really missed while on break is reading everyone else's blogs. I'll be stopping by to visit in the next few days. Happy Monday Everyone!

Yes, I'm on a Break, but You Gotta See This!

My hiatus hasn't even begun, but I'm breaking it already. Told you I couldn't do it! But I've found some links out there in the blogosphere that I just had to share. There's some great stuff going on right now. Check it out:

Agent Sara Megibow has posted a letter on Natalie Bahm's blog to romance writers. If you write romance, you'll want to get over there ASAP.

DL Hammons over at Cruising Altitude is on a quest to find blogging buddies across the globe. He's still got a ways to go, so let's help him out! In the U.S., he still needs buddies in Hawaii, Maryland, Mississippi, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia. If you know of any bloggers in these states, please help spread the word!

Karsten Knight has posted an awesome instructional dance video for men to celebrate 100 followers. You DO NOT want to miss this, unless you've got something against laughing. Seriously, you need to check this out.

I shouldn't even be telling you this (because I want to win!), but Marcia Hoehne is giving away critiques of the first 1000 words of your manuscript. She's an author and a writing instructor. The deadline is June 22 at 6am. LATE BREAKING NEWS: I won this critique! Thanks so much, Marcia, and don't worry guys, she's giving away two more critiques next month!

I'll miss you guys, but I'll check in when I can (and hopefully be a little more disciplined about actually staying on break!)

Digging Deeper

One comment that came up often in the Next Top Title Blogfest (with my titles and others) was that a title was "generic." Special thanks to Margo Berendsen at Writing at High Altitude, who suggested I could dig deeper and make one of my titles, The Reluctant Prince, more evocative. She asked what else is striking about my character besides being a prince? What other trait does he have that's more active, with more attitude.

I gave it some thought. When I have a question about my writing, I challenge myself to come up with ten answers. I allow crazy, dumb, out-there answers, as long as I get ten. That way I get past the obvious surface answers, and hopefully find something more creative.

Here goes. What's striking about my mc? He's
1 - a prince
2- an eldest son
3- the heir to the throne of his country
4 - a brother (this is a story about three brothers)
5 - a murderer
6 - lives as a peasant (unaware of his true ancestry)
7 - an abuse victim
8 - a loner
9 - a hero
10 - a survivor

What traits does he have? He's
1 - reluctant
2 - forgotten (by his parents - not really, but he feels that way)
3 - noble
4 - heroic
5 - defiant
6 - brave
7 - royal/aristocrat/blueblood/regal
8 - isolated
9 - abandoned
10 - independent

Keep in mind, the purpose of this post is not to find the perfect title for my book (though that would be nice...), but rather to elaborate on Margo's suggestion of digging deeper, finding a more evocative title.

So here are some variations on The Reluctant Prince:

The Forgotten Prince

The Abandoned Heir

The Peasant Hero

The Reluctant Son

The Peasant Prince

I'm actually not sure how good of a job I did of finding a more evocative title - this was hard! But it was a good exercise and I definitely have some more options here. The important thing is, I went a little further, past the obvious traits that first jumped to my mind, and found some titles with a little more depth.

I mentioned before that I have a lot of family obligations coming up this summer. With that in mind, I'll be taking a blogging break for the next three weeks. Honestly, I don't know if I'll last, I may have to sneak in a post here or there, and I'll definitely try to visit some blogs whenever I can. I'll see you in July!