Literary Overdrive

I feel like words are bombarding me from every direction right now. Which is funny, because I'm hosting 19 people for Thanksgiving this year. So food should be bombarding me, not words.

I've been writing a lot lately. I'm not doing NaNo, 'cause I hate the idea of forcing writing. But I recently jumped back into an old project and I'm really excited about where the stories going. I wrote about 5k words last weekend. I know that's nothing by NaNo standards, but since I've been in revising mode for the last couple of months, 5k words of a rough draft feels like a lot.

Between writing, I also did lots of fun prep for turkey day stuff, like shampoo my carpets. I seriously hate doing housework. I've found the only way I can get myself to clean anything is to listen to an audio book at the same time. My house must have been pretty dirty, cause in the past five days, I've listened to four books.

I told you I'm being bombarded by words. I listened to four books and wrote 3 new chapters in my own WIP. So many stories, so many words. I have a lot to be thankful for right now.

The DUFF

I recently read The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger. And, wow, I totally loved it!

There’s been a fair amount of buzz surrounding this book since before it even came out in stores, because Kody is only seventeen. A YA novel written by a young adult is like a magic ticket for us adults that right YA into the minds of our readers. I’d heard all about the authenticity of the characters voices, and how it dealt with “edgy” topics in an honest way.

I was expecting something good, but still surprised by own great it is. When I was seventeen I tried to write a book. It had seven point of view characters and zero plot. It was about what you’d expect from a book written by a teenager. It sucked.

The DUFF does not suck—at all. The voice is great, which is what all the buzz around this new teen author has been saying. But more than the voice, the characters are amazing! They’re so real, and complicated, and multifaceted. Kody Keplinger’s age really doesn’t matter. She has already become one of the best writers currently working in young adult. I would compare her writing to Sarah Dessen, Laurie Hasle Anderson, and Elizabeth Scott.

I’m thrilled that Kody is so young. Not because it gives her a fresh new voice, but because it means she has lots of writing years ahead of her and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

Writing Sad

I just finished a much needed rewrite for EXIT STAGE LEFT. I think that project is now worthy of submission, which is good ‘cause I have a few manuscript requests I’ve been procrastinating responding to. Now that I’m ready to send EXIT STAGE LEFT out into the world, it’s time for me to shift to a new work in progress.

I started writing BROKEN last summer, and then tabled it after 30k words when I realized how desperately EXIT STAGE LEFT needed a re-write. So last night, I re-read my first 30k of BROKEN to help get myself back into that story.

EXIT STAGE LEFT isn’t a laugh on every page, but the MC is pretty sarcastic, and in general the story is light hearted. BROKEN is an entirely different beast. It’s a book about pain, both physical and emotional. Reading BROKEN should cause sorrow. Writing it is beyond intense.

There is one scene I wrote last summer. I remember I had to stop writing three times, because I was crying so much I couldn’t see the computer. That scene left me feeling hollow for the rest of the day. When I re-read the manuscript, I noticed lots of holes in the plot and weak secondary characters. The manuscript is still super rough. But I sobbed uncontrollably when reading that scene.

And when I later told a friend about it, she cried while hearing me describe what happens. I think this is good. I actually think this is great. I want BROKEN to be a book that resonates with its readers and causes a strong emotional response. I just hope I have the fortitude to survive writing it.

Gail Carriger

Last night, I heard Gail Carriger speak at Powell’s. She was there promoting her most recent novel BLAMELESS. I haven’t read BLAMELESS yet, but I did enjoy reading SOULLESS and CHANGELESS, and I’m looking forward to reading BLAMELESS soon.

I originally heard about SOULLESS on Pub Rants. Carriger’s agent is Kristin Nelson, the fabulous blogging agent. In one of Kristin’s query letter does and don’ts posts, she used the original query letter for SOULLESS as an example of a good query letter. And you know what, she was right.

After reading the query letter for SOULLESS, I totally wanted to read the book. Like I immediate did some research on when the book would be coming out and marked my calendar to buy it ASAP. And SOULLESS didn’t disappoint. It’s a great book, with a unique plot and a great voice. And all of that is in the query.

Since I’m still pre-published, I can’t claim to know anything about how to write a great query. But Gail Carriger did write a great book. And if you need more persuading, just check out her query letter here.

Duel Narration

My current Work in Progress is told in duel narration. Giving my two narrators distinct voices has proved the hardest part of writing this story. But I think I've actually achieved in making them sound like two different people.

32,380 of the words in my 56k word novel are told from Jocelyn's point of view. There are an average of 4.35 letters in each of her words, and 11.19 words in each of her sentences. Jocelyn's Gunning Fog reading level is 7.07.

The other 27,654 words in the novel are told from Hunter's point of view. Hunter also averages 4.35 letters per word, but he only uses 10.27 words per sentence. Hunter's Gunning Fog reading level is 6.69.

And to prove that their 4.35 letter long words are different words, I made wordle diagrams for both of them.

Here is Jocelyn's vocabulary.



And here is Hunter's.

Laurie Halse Anderson

Last night I went to a Laurie Halse Anderson book signing at Powell’s. She was there promoting her latest book, FORGE. FORGE is a sequel to CHAINS and is about runaway slaves fighting for their own version of freedom at Valley Forge during the American Revolution. I really enjoyed reading CHAINS, and am looking forward to reading FORGE.

As much as I like historical fiction, Laurie Halse Anderson’s contemporary YA has always resonated more strongly with me. I think most of the 100+ audience members were there for the same reason. By the time we got to the Q&A section, all the questions were about her contemporary works.

About a dozen of the audience members were guys from the same high school English class. They are currently reading TWISTED in class and there teacher (who was also there) offered to give extra credit to any student who came to meet the author. The guys had lots of good questions, and it was clear that TWISTED was a story that had touched them deeply and meant more to them than just a grade in English. I haven’t read TWISTED yet, but after seeing those boys reaction, it is now at the top of my To Read list.

There were also a lot of questions/comments about SPEAK. SPEAK is Anderson’s most famous book, and deals with the emotional distress of a 13 year old girl as she finds the courage to speak up after being a victim of date rape. I have read SPEAK and know it is an important and powerful book.

Laurie Halse Anderson took her time, talking with each person who wanted a book signed. So I spent about 45 minutes in line next to a young woman named Carly. Carly was super excited to meet Anderson, and she spent most of her time jumping up and down. She had three well read books in hand. Her copy of SPEAK was especially tattered, and she told me that she keeps it in her backpack at all times.

Carly and I talked a bit about what other authors we enjoy reading, and how we are both looking forward to reading Anderson’s newest book. When Carly finally made it to the front of the line, I overheard her conversation with Anderson. She told Anderson that she was a sexual assault victim when she was 15 and that SPEAK was the book that gave her the courage to seek help. Carly wanted to thank Anderson for showing her how to move forward.

When it was my turn to meet Laurie Halse Anderson, I admitted that I was a pre-published YA author. And that witnessing Anderson’s interaction with Carly is the reason I write. I then told Anderson that I want to be her when I grow up. She smiled, told me life in the slush pile doesn’t last forever, and that she wants to be her when she grows up too.

And Then…

It seems like I’ve been reading noting but sequels lately. In the past couple of weeks I’ve read “The Mocking Jay” (book three in the Hunger Games trilogy) and “Linger” (book two in the Shiver series). And I’m currently half way through “Twelfth Grade Kills” (book five in the Vladimir Tod series).

Oddly, all three of these books have an other world element. Vladimir Tod is a vampire. Linger/Shiver are all about werewolves, and The Mocking Jay/Hunger Games is dystopia. It seems like once an author goes through all the work to build another world, there is more motivation to write multiple books in that world. When writers are working in a contemporary setting it is easier to develop a new set of characters while keeping the authors voice.

But I don’t really want to talk about why people read/write sequels. I’m here to talk about what makes sequels work. Since the next Harry Potter movie is do out in a few weeks, I’ll use Harry as an example. The first three books of the Harry Potter series are all stand alone books. Someone could pick up “The Prisoner of Askaban” and enjoy it without reading the first two books. But from book four on, the reader really needs to know the entire story. So if you haven’t read the first 6 books, don’t go see the movie. You wont get it!

I was totally hooked on Harry a decade ago when J.K. was taking painfully long to release each new installment. I always went back and re-read all the previous books before the next installment came out. After two years of anticipation, I never minded the re-reads.

As I mentioned before, I’ve recently read three different sequels from three different series. I didn’t re-read any of the earlier books in any of these series. But I have read the original books from all these series within the past year. I had no problem jumping back into the worlds of Mercy Falls or the Hunger Games. Since I have read the earlier books in these series, I’m not sure if these books could stand alone or not. I’m sure someone totally blind to these worlds would have questions at first, but my guess is that these new installments answer all the important questions.

That isn’t the case with Vladimir Tod. I read “Eleventh Grade Burns” last February. It ends with a huge cliff hanger. The action is totally heated, a million things are happening, and then bam, wait until book five for more info. I wasn’t quite as floored as the ending to book six of the Harry Potter series, but my attention was definitely grabbed.

Given the intensity of that cliff hanger, I’d really been looking forward to the release of “Twelfth Grade Kills”. But I didn’t bother to go back and re-read the previous novels in the series, I just started on page one of this final installment. And I’m kind of confused. Like I said before, I’m now halfway into it. And I think that I’ve remembered all the important details from Eleventh Grade by now. But the story didn’t start with any kind of refresher. It really assumed that the reader had just set down Eleventh Grade, and been so hooked by that ending that they rushed out to buy Twelfth Grade five minute later.

Now that all five books are out, newbie’s to the Vladimir Tod series can do just that. But if you’re just starting out, trust me. “Twelfth Grade Kills” cannot stand alone. Reading it without reading the first four books in the series would be even more confusing than watching “The Deadly Howls” without reading the first six Harry Potter books.

November Goals

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I have never participated in NaNo before, and I didn’t sign up for NaNo this year. Still the knowledge that there are so many other writers trying to complete a rough draft this month inspires me to accomplish something.

October was a crazy busy month for me. I had a ton of stuff going on in my work and private life. This left me virtually no time to think about my writing life. In the entire month of October, I read half a dozen books, and did seven blog posts. And the only writing I did was a few minor edits to my WIP.

Now it is November, and my schedule is slightly less crazy. As if to prove it, it’s only the fourth day of the month and I’ve already read two books and this is my third blog post. I do have goals of getting some actual writing done this month too. I just don’t plan/expect to write 50,000 words.

I recently got back comments from one of my beta readers. So there are a few minor tweaks I want to make to my WIP (Exit Stage Left) before sending it out into the greater world. Hopefully I’ll be ready to start submitting it again in the next few days.

Once I put Exit Stage Left to bed, I need to start writing something else. I was working on a different project last summer (Broken). I got about 30k into it before I realized I needed to step back and do another re-write of Exit Stage Left. Jumping back into Broken is my main goal for November.

According to the world of NaNoWriMo, 50k words is considered a winning novel. I’d like Broken to be about 60-70k by the time I’m done with it. But I tend to always write short, Exit Stage Left is only 56k. I don’t expect to finish my rough draft of Broken this month. But getting to the 50k mark might be nice. Since it has been a few months since I looked at it, I plan to spend some time reexamining the beginning before forcing out a middle and end.

That’s actually been my biggest fear of NaNo all along. I normally write relatively fast (3-4 months for a first draft). So reaching THE END isn’t something that seems impossible to me. And I don’t like the idea of the forcing out bad writing. I just need to reinsert writing into my life and try to add some decent new chapters to my former WIP.

Donahue ate Geraldo

I’m not an animal person. I’m allergic to pet dander and don’t want to face the medical consequences of having a dog or a cat. My dad is also allergic to pet dander, so I never had a dog or a cat as a kid. Sometimes, I observe other people with fun looking pets and am able to conceive of the idea of enjoying having a pet. But this logical problem of liking animals always seems so hypothetical. Maybe in a parallel universe I’d want to have a dog. But in my current reality, I’m afraid of dogs, and cats, and hamsters.

I was recently talking to a friend about the lack of pets in my life and I found myself admitting I had a gerbil as a kid, and I was terrified of it. Maybe that psycho gerbil of yesteryear is the source of my modern phobia. Sure some dogs bite and having a fear of dogs is mildly understandable even if most dogs are cute and cuddly and nice. But who is afraid of gerbils?

When I was a kid I had two gerbils, Donahue and Geraldo. Until one dark and scary night when Donahue ate Geraldo. There is nothing worse then waking up to a weird crunching sound, turning on the light, and seeing one of your pets eating their cage mate.

After much yelling and screaming, my parents managed to dispose of the half eaten Geraldo, and Donahue was forced to return to a diet of alfalfa pellets. But I never forgot. That gerbil was evil. I had a cannibal gerbil living in my bedroom. He ate his brother, when there was a full dish of food in his cage. What would stop him from trying to eat me?

Donahue lived for several more years after he turned cannibal. I continued to give him food and water and clean out the bottom of his cage. But I never held him in my hands. I never played with him. And I never looked at him lovingly or thought he was cute and cuddly. I was afraid of Donahue. And if my friends asked to hold him, I’d shut his cage and shake my head. “He’s a cannibal, don’t go near him.”

When Donahue finally died, I breathed a giant sigh of relief. I have never purchased another pet. And I’ve never wanted to. I know lots of people who love their pets. And a part of me knows this is normal. A part of me is almost jealous of these normal pet loving people. Having a fun playful puppy might be cool. But what if it tried to eat me? I’ll always be scared of dogs and cats and especially gerbils.

Evolution Me and Other Freaks of Nature

One should always refrain from discussions of both Politics and Religion in polite society. But I’ve never been very good at acting polite. So on Election Day, when most people are thinking about politics, I’m going to talk about religion. Or more specifically, I’m going to talk about a book I just read that deals with the alleged conflict between science and religion.

I enjoyed reading Evolution Me and Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande. It is a book about a Christian teen who learns about evolution in biology class and comes to the shocking realization that science and religion don’t have to be mutually exclusive. To be honest, it really surprises me when people think evolution and Christianity are mutually exclusive. I’m a total nerd, and I always have been. This means that I got straight A’s in everything as a kid, including biology and Sunday school. I loved science when I was growing up, as my current career in engineering may suggest. But I also loved church as a kid.

I didn’t just go to church and Sunday school and blindly except everything people told me. I read the entire bible multiple times, and didn’t simply memorize versus but entire books. I loved getting in long theological debates with my pastor and finding subtle references to passages in the Old Testament that shed new light on my understanding of the New Testament.

When I started learning about evolution in school, it never occurred to me to question it, or to assume it contradicted my religious belief. Instead, I found myself oddly surprised at how scientifically accurate the bible is. The seven day creation story follows modern scientific theory perfectly from the big bang to the beginnings of early aquatic life and onto the evolution of more complex organisms. The simple acceptance that “God Days” are not the same length as “People Days” is the only leap of faith required to come to the basic conclusion that evolution and “creationism” or “intelligent design” or “whatever” are basically the same thing. The only difference is that one story tells the how and the other story tells the why.

I grew up in an open minded church and all my Sunday school teachers readily supplied the “God Days” aren’t the same as “People Days” solution. So it sort of floors me when I hear about Christians raising such a stink about the inclusion of evolution in scientific education. And this is why more kids need to think like Mena. She is a smart Christian who wants to believe in a universe where Darwin and Jesus can co-exist. I hope there are smart Christian teens like Mena reading this book and coming to the same conclusions I did as a child. Science is cool, and all it wants to do is tell the HOW. If you want to go to Church or read the bible in hopes of discovering the WHY, you can. Because science and religion don’t have to be mutually exclusive.