Weekend Progress Report

I've been super busy lately, but in a good, very productive way :) Unfortunately, that productivity hasn't spilled over to my blog, but the wave of writing/personal/work deadlines has passed (for now) and I'm looking forward to focusing on the blog again - I've missed you guys!

So, what have I been up to (in the writing world, anyways - the rest is just boring)? Well, I polished up my pitch and first chapter for DAUGHTER OF THE MOON and entered it into three contests. And guess what?! I won two of them - and the results for the third still aren't in. When I first realized I'd actually won, I was floored, and then giddy. And then panic set in. You see, both wins ended in full requests. Which is AMAZING...but, what if they don't like it? The full manuscript has only ever been read by CPs and Betas in our safe, fluffy, little writing world. Yes, some critiques can be hard, but I can't even imagine what an editor or agent might have to say. So, the waiting has begun and I'm equal parts terrified and over-the-moon, out-of-my-mind excited. It's actually kind of exhausting. How do you deal with the wait? Any tips? ;)

To keep my mind off of my email inbox, I've been keeping busy catching up on all of the critiques I didn't have time for the past couple of weeks on Scribophile. Seriously, if you guys aren't on that website, check it out. I can't say enough good things about the Scrib community :)

And finally....

Theresa Paolo - YA writer and blogger - surprised me with the Booker Award! So here's how this one works:

This award is for book bloggers only. To receive this award the blog must be at least 50% about books (reading or writing is okay)
Along with receiving this award, you must also share your top five favorite books you have ever read. (More than five is okay) You must give this award to 5-10 other lucky book blogs you adore.


It might be bending the rules of the award a bit, but I'm going to choose my top 5 favorite stories, rather than books, so I can include some series too. It's just too hard for me to separate a series into individual books once I've read the whole story. 


So here goes:


1) The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
2) The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (with a little help from Brandon Sanderson)
3) The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
4) Lord of the Rings trilogy by Tolkein
5a) The Axis trilogy by Sara Douglass
5b) Kushiel's Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey


Ok, so I cheated again and the fifth choice was a tie. It was really hard narrowing it down that far though, really! So what about you? Have you read the books on my list? Did you love any of these as much as I do? And, you might have noticed that I only chose adult books. This wasn't on purpose, but I think the reason behind it is that these are the books I was reading in my young adult years. I skipped the whole YA genre until I was an adult for some odd reason and so when I think about my favorite stories, the ones which shaped me as a reader are the first to come to mind. What about you? Would your list be made up of mostly adult? Mostly YA? A healthy mix?


So now I need to pass on the Booker Award. I choose:


Clare Dugmore
Melissa Buell
Leigh Ann Kopans
McKenzie McCann
Dorothy Dreyer

The Wilde's Fire Editor-Judged Contest

The Wilde's Fire Editor-Judged Contest Begins....NOW!

“There is no pain in this death, only peace, knowing I am going to die with the one I love the most.”—Katriona Wilde.

Wilde's Fire by Krystal Wade is available now!

It's time for another contest! I know, I know, I've been a little contest happy lately but I promise this will be the last one posted for awhile. 

Anyways, there's still time to sign up (it's also a blog hop) so if you are interested, just sign up on the linky at the bottom of this post. Then, you'll need to post your first 500 words and query on your own blog and leave constructive criticism on the entries for as many of the other participating blogs as you can before the 28th. At that point, all submissions will be sent in and a winner will be chosen. The prize is a full request from Curiosity Quills Press.

Title: DAUGHTER OF THE MOON

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Query:

Seventeen-year-old Selina Kane always knew she was different, but never imagined she was last-living-necromancer different. Not until she starts speaking the language of the Underworld and visiting Acherusian Lake in her dreams. And then Blake storms into her life, claiming to be her bonded protector and making her blush and stumble over her words. Blake warns Selina about Ciara, queen of the undead. Ciara has gained ground in the world of the living, and it isn’t a secret that she feels threatened by Selina’s return.

Before long, the undead attack and Selina watches helplessly through the only spell she can conjure – a protective shield – as Blake is dragged away in her place. Selina assumes the undead have murdered him and she turns to the necromantic powers she hardly knows how to use, risking her life to search for Blake in the Underworld. But Selina doesn’t find his soul resting peacefully in Acherusian Lake. Blake’s been transformed into one of the undead, and the guards of the Underworld expect her to find and destroy him.

Selina doesn’t care what the guards’ idea of her duty as a necromancer is; she’s determined to get Blake back in one piece. There is one spell, one that would save Blake’s soul, but she’d have to kill him to use it, and worse, transform him into a ferryman for the Underworld. There may be other ways to save him though, if she's willing to make dark alliances with the undead. Selina knows she shouldn’t, but with Blake’s life in jeopardy, the line between good and evil starts to blur.

First 500

As far as she knew, Selina was the only seventeen-year-old with her own burial plot. And once a year, she looked forward to nothing so much as to visiting her grave.

“I can give you a ride to school today, if you want. Since it’s your birthday,” Jess said, jingling the keys to the old Chrysler she’d inherited from Grandpa last summer.

“Thanks, Sis, but actually, I want to visit my mother on the way so I’ll just ride my bike.”

“We can stop at the cemetery on the way home,” Jess offered.

“I’d rather go now.” She would have already been at the cemetery a minute past midnight, if she’d dared.

“Yeah, sure. No problem. See you tonight,” Jess said. Her eyes were full of understanding and Selina turned away to hide the shame creeping into her face.

Selina and Jess, like all of their brothers and sisters, had been adopted. But Selina had only a few fragmented memories of the mother she’d lost.

Soft, brown hair twined around her chubby, toddler fingers.

The  smell of soap.

A hummed tune.

Reaching out to accept the urn of her mother’s ashes.

Jess had been thirteen when her parents died. Using the loss of a mother she barely even remembered with someone like Jess was wrong, and Selina knew it. But she had to get to the cemetery before the wild roses covering her grave bloomed.

Her hands shook with excitement as she pulled her bike out of the side yard and closed the gate behind her. She jumped onto the saddle and pedaled down the driveway as fast as she could. Every moment spent on the road was one moment in which her roses might bloom without her. One moment in which the message they were meant to bring her might be forever lost.

Selina hunched down and lost herself in the sound of wheels on pavement and the rhythm of her breathing. Before long, she was skidding to a stop before the black, wrought-iron gates of the cemetery. She leaned her bike against the fence without bothering to lock it up and raced onto the field of graves. The grass was slippery with morning dew and it squeaked beneath her shoes. Although she was only ever here once a year, she expertly wove her way between headstones in a near beeline to the oak tree which shaded her grave.

Please, don’t let me be too late.

A vine of wild rosebuds emerged from the grass in the center of her plot. A sigh of relief whooshed out of Selina’s lungs even as she tried to catch her breath from the sprint over; she’d made it. She leaned against the oak tree with her hands on her knees and her eyes glued to the rosebuds. In the morning shade of the oak tree, the rosebuds were black. Four years of experience told her though that they were actually a deep purple.

There are so many. More than ever before.

The Writer's Voice Entry: DAUGHTER OF THE MOON

The Writer’s Voice” is a multi-blog, multi-agent contest hosted by Cupid of Cupid's Literary Connection, Brenda Drake of Brenda Drake Writes, Monica B.W. of Love YA, and Krista Van Dolzer of Mother. Write. (Repeat.). It is based on NBC’s singing reality show The Voice, so the four hosts will serve as coaches and select projects for their teams based on queries and first pages.

I made it into the first submission period which was today at 9:00am EDT. There is another submission period tonight at 9:00pm EDT via the Linky on any of the four hosting blogs - so if you haven't entered already, get your clicking finger warmed up (you'll need the link to your blog and your name ready to enter the linky)!

Here's my entry (wish me luck and here's to hoping one of the judges will select DAUGHTER OF THE MOON for the next round):

Query:
Seventeen-year-old Selina Kane always knew she was different, but never imagined she was last-living-necromancer different. Not until she starts speaking the language of the Underworld and visiting Acherusian Lake in her dreams. And then Blake storms into her life, claiming to be her bonded protector and making her blush and stumble over her words. Blake warns Selina about Ciara, queen of the undead. Ciara has gained ground in the world of the living, and it isn’t a secret that she feels threatened by Selina’s return.

Before long, the undead attack and Selina watches helplessly through the only spell she can conjure – a protective shield – as Blake is dragged away in her place. Selina assumes the undead have murdered him and she turns to the necromantic powers she hardly knows how to use, risking her life to search for Blake in the Underworld. But Selina doesn’t find his soul resting peacefully in Acherusian Lake. Blake’s been transformed into one of the undead, and the guards of the Underworld expect her to find and destroy him.

Selina doesn’t care what the guards’ idea of her duty as a necromancer is; she’s determined to get Blake back in one piece. There is one spell, one that would save Blake’s soul, but she’d have to kill him to use it, and worse, transform him into a ferryman for the Underworld. There may be other ways to save him though, if she's willing to make dark alliances with the undead. Selina knows she shouldn’t, but with Blake’s life in jeopardy, the line between good and evil starts to blur.

DAUGHTER OF THE MOON: ACHERUSIAN BOUND is a YA Urban Fantasy complete at 53,000 words and will appeal to readers of both Garth Nix and Lauren Kate. It is a stand-alone novel with series potential.

First 250 Words:

Selina was probably the only seventeen-year-old with her own burial plot, and once a year, she looked forward to nothing as much as visiting her grave.

“I can give you a ride to school today, if you want. Since it’s your birthday,” Jess said, jingling the keys to the old Chrysler she’d inherited from Grandpa last summer.

“Thanks, Sis, but actually, I want to visit my mother on the way so I’ll just ride my bike.”

“We can stop at the cemetery on the way home,” Jess offered.

“I’d rather go now.” She would have already been at the cemetery a minute past midnight, if she’d dared.

“Yeah, sure. No problem. See you tonight,” Jess said. Her eyes were full of understanding and Selina turned away to hide the shame creeping into her face. Selina and Jess, like all of their brothers and sisters, had been adopted. But Jess had been thirteen when her parents died, Selina had been an infant. Using the loss of a mother she barely even remembered with someone like Jess was wrong, and Selina knew it. But she had to get to the cemetery before the wild roses covering her grave bloomed.

Her hands shook with excitement as she pulled her bike out of the side yard and closed the gate behind her. She jumped onto the saddle and pedaled down the driveway as fast as she could. Every moment spent on the road was one moment in which her roses might bloom without her.

X is for Xenoglossia

Xenoglossia refers to a person's knowledge of a language they have never studied. Pretty random, right? I confess, X is a pretty difficult letter, but this does relate! (Ok, the random Xenoglossia Anime doesn't really relate, but how could I pass it up?)

In my latest MS, Daughter of the Moon, the main character discovers she can speak the language of the Underworld. This comes as quite a shock since she has never before heard the language until she fluently speaks the words herself. And when those spoken words result in magic, she can't pretend the language isn't real. There's a good explanation for all of this, but I don't want to give it away :)

Have you read any novels where a character suddenly speaks a language they have no known prior knowledge of? I'm looking for examples, but having a hard time finding any (and I don't mean speaking in tongues).

P is for Perfection

There were a lot of topics I considered for today's post: plotting, pacing, procrastination. Perfection is the most relevant topic for me at the moment, so I'm going to go with that.

First off, this post isn't about being perfect, or reaching perfection. I don't think that's possible - especially since one person's perfect is another's nightmare. What it is about, is how we writers struggle for perfection anyways. No matter how "done" I think I might be with a WiP, I'll inevitably think of ways to improve it long after the final revision. Some of those "improvements" might actually end up weakening the MS, other adjustments might be equivalent to the original, and a few might actually be worth something. But this tinkering could go on for years if I don't put a time limit on it. So that's what I do. Of course, I know there will be more edits later should an agent and then an editor decide to take my story under their wing, so the story isn't really done. But for me, for the time, it should be.

So here's the thing. I was done with Daughter of the Moon. I even entered contests and queried a small number of agents. But, the feedback I've received from those contests and queries is that I should consider a chapter 1 re-write. The dream sequence I have at the beginning of the story is apparently killing my MS's chances. So, I'm now about to rewrite chapter 1 (for what must be the millionth time). I don't really know for sure whether or not that's the right thing to do. The decision is based on a relatively small pool of feedback. But I just need for this MS to be as perfect as it can be, so I can really know it had the best shot of getting picked up that I could give it.

What are your experiences with perfection? Do you ever feel like an MS is as perfect as it can be? Or are you constantly thinking of things you'd like to change/add/remove after you've already sent it out to CPs/Betas/Agents/Editors - or even after it's already been published?

Public Slushpile

I was one of the lucky few to be chosen by the Bot for the Public Slushpile going on over at Miss Snark's First Victim! This means that my query for DAUGHTER OF THE MOON is posted HERE and you are all invited to head over and evaluate it :) Here are the rules (taken from Authoress' blog):

• NO CRITIQUING THE QUERIES!
• Each comment needs to begin with YES or NO, followed by one sentence (one!) explaining why.
• One comment per reader.
• Comments that do not begin with YES or NO will not be included in the final tally.
• The 5 queries with the most YES responses will be invited to submit their first 500 words for critique.

As for your "yes" and "no" reasons:  Try to encapsulate the main strong or weak point of the query into your sentence so that it is as helpful as possible to the author.

GOOD: 

NO.  I could not determine what the main conflict of your protagonist is.

YES.  You've taken a tried-and-true premise and given it a unique twist that makes me want to read more.

NOT SO GOOD:

NO.  Your main character's name reminds me of my ex-husband.

YES.  Wow! Awesome! I read this before and I've also line-edited your manuscript twice, as you know (hee hee!), so of COURSE you also already know that THIS QUERY ROCKS and you're the BESTEST!

Have fun! Voting will be open until 9:00 am EDT on Thursday.  Winners will be announced later that morning.

I hope you'll all head over and participate :) And if your query made it into the slushpile too, let us know which is yours in the comments!

Weekend Progress Report

This week I won a 50 page critique as part of Larissa's 200 follower giveaway. I also received critiques from my Scribophile friends on the first two chapters of the DAUGHTER OF THE MOON sequel I've been working on. So, this weekend I worked on revisions for the first two chapters and prepared the first 50 pages for Larissa. I'm really excited to hear what she thinks and to receive her critique :)

Also, I started reading Stephenie Meyer's, THE HOST. I had started it awhile back but never finished it and I'm looking forward to getting back into it - so far, the story completely has me hooked!

My goal for next week is to make some actual progress on the unwritten chapters of my DAUGHTER OF THE MOON sequel WiP. So hopefully I'll have an updated word count for you next weekend :)

What reading/writing progress have you made this week?

Query Time!

I've been working on getting my Agent Tracker Spreadsheet updated so I'm strategically ready to send out queries for DAUGHTER OF THE MOON. I thought I'd share my process with you and ask the writers out there about your processes as well.

1) Create the spreadsheet template:

2) Find the agents to fill in the list. I've compiled my list based on information from The Agent Spotlight at Literary Rambles, checking my favorite author blogs/websites to see who represents them, using lists of agents who participate in blog and Twitter pitch contests like the ones on Miss Snark's First Victim (contests are a really great way to see what sort of material the agents are interested in), and Agent Query. Then, once I have my list, I check the Bewares, Recommendations, and Background Check Forum on Absolute Write to see what sort of information about the agents comes up. I try to fill up the list with at least 50 agents.

3) Now that I have my list, I check the official website for each agent and copy their submission guidelines, average response time, and what they are looking for into my spreadsheet. I also paste their website into the "Additional Info" column.

4) After this, I do some in depth research on each agent. I check to see if they have a blog, twitter account, or recent interviews. I use these resources to find the most up-to-date info on what the agent is looking for and what their personal tastes are. If I can find a list of their favorite books at the moment, and my manuscript is comparable in some way to one of those books, perfect! I'll mention this in the query. Any of this sort of information which will help me to personalize the query will go into the "additional info" column.

5) I send out queries in batches of 10. I have an idea of which agents are my "dream agents" and I don't include all of them in a single go. I like to stratify the batches accordingly and wait for feedback on the first batch (just in case my query is bombing out there) before I send out another. If I don't receive a single positive response, then I might tweak my query before I send out the next batch.

That's it! How does your process compare? Is there anything you would do differently?

I've been Tagged! Lucky 7 MEME

J. W. Alden has tagged me to take part in the Lucky 7 Meme. If you're unfamiliar with the meme, the rules are:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines - sentences or paragraphs - and post them as they're written. No cheating
4. Tag 7 authors
5. Let them know

Here are the 7 sentences from page 77 of DAUGHTER OF THE MOON:

Selina stood on the shore of the river watching the canoe glide toward her. A short figure, robed from head to toe in dark velvet, was its only cargo. She’d been watching for awhile, trying to decide what to do. One moment she itched for the safety of the trees, the next she wanted to call out to the man in the boat.

As he neared the shore, he lifted his long staff from the water and the canoe came to an abrupt halt. Murky, blue light drifted from a lantern swinging from the vessel’s bow, washing Selina in its melancholy hue. She tucked her iPod into a pocket and stepped forward. 

In the spirit of the meme, I'm tagging these people with no forewarning, so there's no guarantee they'll be able to participate. Even so, you should check out their blogs! 


Ilima Todd
Lora
Cortney Pearson
Alyssa
Clare Dugmore
Carissa Taylor
Crystal Schubert

Hope you liked the exerpt and I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's :)

Was it me, or was it you?

Subjectivity refers to the subject and his or her perspective, feelings, beliefs, and desires.


This post is about rejection. Having a manuscript rejected doesn't make anybody happy, but that's not exactly what this is about. As a writer, you expect a certain amount of rejection (the majority of the feedback a manuscript receives will likely be in the form of rejection). And I do. I crave it actually, so I can find the problems in my work and fix it.


The thing is, there often isn't a specific reason for the rejection. And even if there is, it's rare to find a literary agent who has the time (or isn't so scarred by backlash received from writers he/she was trying to help) to share the specific reason for rejection. Most often, the response received will be some form of the sentence, "It just wasn't right for me, but I'm sure there's another agent out there who it would be right for." This could mean anything from, "Wow, that was the worst POS I've ever read, but I just don't have the heart to tell you" to "You didn't follow the submission guidelines" to "The piece is well-written and the premise isn't bad, but I just don't feel like your genre is selling right now".


And this is frustrating. I don't want to send out a query that isn't working to all the agents on my list and then have them all pass on my manuscript. But, if I don't send out my query to a large number of agents at once, then how will I ever reach enough people to overcome the subjectivity factor? How do I know if I just need to keep sending it out there until I find "the one" or if there is actually something fundamentally wrong with my query? What do you all you writers out there think about this - agree? disagree? What have your query experiences been?


And in case you're wondering about my inspiration for this post - I'm getting ready to start querying DAUGHTER OF THE MOON, and I've been entering contests to test the water. The first contest, March Madness Agent Pitch, didn't go so well and I didn't make it into the agent-judged round. I've entered another one over at Cupid's Lit Connection, so we'll see how that goes!

Weekend Progress Report

This weekend I've taken a break from my new WiP (sequel to DAUGHTER OF THE MOON) because I received my first chapter critique for DAUGHTER OF THE MOON from literary agent Gemma Cooper. Her feedback was extremely helpful and I've been busy making edits :) And once those are done, I can start querying!

Other than that, I've been catching up on my Scribophile critiques, researching haunted places in Illinois and Indiana for the WiP, and spending way too much time on Twitter.

And now I want to hear from you, what progress have you made this weekend?

WIP - The Movie

Today's the day!! Here goes:

DAUGHTER OF THE MOON - The Cast (made up of course, by yours truly):

Selina Kane (Zooey Deschanel)

Selina Kane is a seventeen-year-old who has stormy grey eyes, brown wavy hair, and pale white skin. She's quirky and never has more than one foot in the present. She yearns for the world of her dreams, never imagining that her dreams aren't really dreams at all. They're trysts into the Underworld. She's the last living Necromancer and it's time to learn her craft.

Selina's music:
Andreas Kleerup - Until We Bleed
Tristan Prettyman - Love, Love, Love

Blake Cadman (Chord Overstreet)

Blake Cadman has sandy hair, green eyes, and a muscular physique which is the result of hours of practicing Capoeira on the beach. His soul was created to be the pair to Selina's. He is reborn through the centuries with a single purpose: to protect the Necromancer his soul is bound to. But Blake isn't only bound by duty, he's also bound by his heart.

Blake's music:
The Gaslight Anthem - Meet me by the River's Edge
The Bouncing Souls - The Gold Song

Aurelia (Michelle Pfeiffer)

Aurelia is a sorceress of the Underworld and the mother of the Ferryman. Her eyes are molten gold and her laugh is the liquid tinkling of bells. She claims to be Selina's ally and helps her with her quest through the Underworld, but she's never been human and Selina isn't quite sure where her loyalties lie; with the living, or with the dead.

Ciara (Mara Rooney)

Aurelia's music:
The Knife - Marble House (the video is pretty awesome too)
Bjork - Gloomy Sunday







Ciara bartered away most of her soul in exchange for knowledge and magic. But there was an unanticipated side-affect; without a complete soul she no longer belongs in the Underworld or in the world of the living. So now she rules in the In-Between where she has built an enclave for her army of vampires, ghosts and demons. There's only one being with the power to oppose her: the necromancer. And Ciara is determined to wipe out the last living necromancer before she comes into her powers and becomes a threat.

Ciara's music:
The Birthday Massacre - Midnight
Evanescence - Farther Away

Searle (Christian Bale)

Searle is undead and an unwilling servant to Ciara. Ciara tricked him long ago into giving up most of his soul in exchange for powers he never received and he hasn't forgiven her. Now, he's biding his time, and plotting his escape from Ciara's grip.

Searle's music:
Billy Talent - Lies
The Editors - Road to Nowhere





What do you think of the DAUGHTER OF THE MOON cast and music I've selected?

And since this is a blogfest, check out these blogs for more WIP- THE MOVIE posts:

1.	Write Here, Write Now	2.	Chock Full of Words
3.	Theresa Paolo	4.	Leigh Covington
5.	Clare Dugmore Writes	6.	Use You Words
7.	Robin Moran	8.	Kelley Lynn
9.	Angie Cothran	10.	Juliana Haygert
11.	The Ubiquitous Perspective	12.	Melissa Hurst
13.	Larissa's World	14.	PK Hrezo
15.	magpiewrites	16.	Jenny S. Morris
17.	Emily R. King	18.	Cortney Pearson
19.	tara tyler	20.	Writing With Hope
21.	Twenty Something Fiction Writer	22.	Tracey Joseph
23.	Limey YA Lit Girl	24.	Stephen Tremp
25.	A. K. Fotinos-Hoyer	26.	Jaycee DeLorenzo
27.	4 Little Doodlebugz	28.	Jolene Perry
29.	Kelley Vitollo	30.	Thardrandian Thoughts
31.	Adjective, Not a Noun	32.	M.J. Fifield
33.	Jade Hart	34.	defcon's defunct delirium

35.	Ashley Nixon	36.	Fresh As A Daisy
37.	Circa: The Movie

Stepping into the Spotlight

Today I'm stepping into the writer spotlight over at Paula McLaughlin's blog. Check it out :)

If you are an unpublished writer with a finished manuscript and want to step into the spotlight yourself, check the spotlight 411 for more information. Paula is always looking for new writers to interview and I can highly recommend the experience!

And tomorrow is the WIP - The Movie blogfest. I'm excited to share my post with you all!!

March Madness Agent Pitch Match

I made it into the March Madness Agent Pitch Match hosted by Shelley Watters, Brenda Drake, and Cassandra Marshall!! I stayed up until midnight to submit my pitch for DAUGHTER OF THE MOON at 6pm EST and I got in :)

So what does this mean? On March 12th, my entry (and everyone else's who made it in - 150 in total) will be posted to the hosts' websites and agents will have two days to review and make notes on the ones they want. Then, on March 14th, there will be a twitter hashtag for agents to post their bids to win more pages or fulls of their favorite pitches. Each agent will have a limited number of bids.

And the participating agents are:

John Cusick - Scott Treimel NY

Sarah LaPolla - Curtis Brown

Sara Sciuto - Full Circle Literary

Molly Ker Hawn - The Bent Agency

Lauren Hammond - ADA Management

Judith Engracia - Liza Dawson Assoc.

Carlie Webber - Jane Rotrosen Agency

Louise Fury - L. Perkins Agency

Gordon Warnock - Andrea Hurst literary

Kevan Lyon - Marsal Lyon Literary Agency

I'm so excited!!!

Word Cloud

There are websites like Tagxedo and Wordle which will generate a "word cloud" from any text the user provides. I copied in the complete text from DAUGHTER OF THE MOON and here's what came out:

There is also a neat feature where you can fit your word cloud into different shapes, like a handprint:

The size of each word is proportional to the number of times it appears in the text. It's a new way of looking at my manuscript and being visually confronted with potentially overused words and the mood the most commonly used words convey. Overall, I'm happy with my word cloud and excited to plug in some more of my WiPs :)

I challenge you to try it too! And let me know if you are surprised by the results (or not).

Blogfest: WIP - The Movie

Kyra at Write Here Write Now and Rachel at Writing on the Wall are hosting a Blogfest: WIP - The Movie and I've signed up! It's going to be so much fun. Here are the details (from Kyra's blog):

WiP: The Movie - March 9th
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to post a photo of the actors or actresses you would like to play the characters in your WiP if it were to be made into a movie. It can be just one character, or the entire cast!Secondly, we want you to soundtrack your movie! Head over to YouTube, and post a song that best describes one of your characters, or your story as a whole. Again, you can pick one song, or several, it's entirely up to you! All we ask is that you follow these simple rules:

1, Follow me
2. Follow Rachel (We will follow back)
3. Sign up using the linky list at the bottom of the page
4. Add one of our funky graphics to your blog to promote the event
5. Post your entries on March 9th, and hop around to see the other entrants on the list!

The PrizesRachel and I will each pick a winner at random, and we will be giving away a copy of one of our favourite books which were turned into movies!

Please note: If you write a blog post about this fest before March 8th, you will get an extra name in the draw to win a prize!

From me: Water For Elephants or Bridget Jones' Diary

From Rachel: The Princess Bride or The Hunger Games 

I've already got some good ideas and I'm excited to get started!

blood magic and other things writers might google

Writing a fictional novel means you get to make everything up, right? Well, mostly. But research is a big part of writing, bigger than I'd ever expected it to be before I started. You have to get the details right if you want the story and characters to have any credibility. When I open a book, I'm ready to believe the narrator's description of events and the world-building, but it's hard to ignore the blatantly impossible and ridiculous. Of course, if the author gives me a reason to accept the blatantly impossible as actually possible (maybe the story takes place in an alternate world where everyone is born with magical powers), I can accept that too.

DAUGHTER OF THE MOON is urban fantasy and so anything out of the ordinary which happens in the real world needs to be explained. And that's where research comes in - adding in the details which maintain plausibility.

Google and Wikipedia have been my go-to sources for research while writing DAUGHTER OF THE MOON and her sequel and I thought I'd take a look back at some of the more interesting things I've googled. Things like:

alchemy transmutation circle, Persephone mythology, conditions which mimic a vampire attack, committing suicide by drowning, porphyria, stages of death, lunar cycles, bus routes from L.A to Montreal, anticoagulants in mosquitoes, blood magic

Last night I watched an episode of Law and Order where a woman's google search history was used as evidence she'd committed a crime. But what if she was really just a writer? What's the strangest thing you've googled lately?

Weekend Progress Report

The Bookworm (Carl Spitzweg)

This weekend isn't turning out to be a very big writing weekend, but I am doing other things which are just as important. For example, I caught up on about 400 pages of reading (young adult fiction). I read a whole lot of unpublished work everyday for my critique partners so it's really important to make sure I read enough published material to balance it out and remind myself of the level of writing polish I'm aiming for. Plus, I love reading, so it's basically a win-win ;)

I also took another look at the first chapter of DAUGHTER OF THE MOON before sending it off to literary agent Gemma Cooper for the critique I won. I'm really excited to see what she thinks of my story!

And I am still working away at the first draft of the sequel to DAUGHTER OF THE MOON. So far, I'm at 20,608 words and I hope to have significantly increased that number for next weekend's progress report!

20608 / 50000 (41.22%)

Contest Win!

I've won a chapter critique from literary agent Gemma Cooper at the Bright Literary Agency!!

http://brightliteraryagency.blogspot.com/

On crits ... and making sense of it all

Critique: One of the most confounding and yet simultaneously rewarding steps of writing a manuscript. I love critting - and I love receiving crits of my work! (especially ones which use words like "love" and "well-written") But, when it comes time to make sense of the criticism, things can get tricky. Everyone has an opinion, and those opinions are seldom unanimous. 

When I first started writing, I doled out my words in pre-measured spoonfuls to one, maybe two people. And then I revised based on the feedback I received. Which was great! Except...the next round of critters didn't always agree with the revisions. Some even sent me back in the direction of the original manuscript. Yikes! So I joined online writing communities like Inkpop, Absolute Write, and Scribophile. I posted my work (after spending hours critting other people's work first, of course) for hundreds, thousands of people who didn't know me or care about hurting my feelings to see. And I nearly wore out my "refresh" key as the feedback came in. It was amazing - I had so many new ideas about how to fix the problems the critters were finding in my work. 

Only, some of the feedback was contradictory and I didn't know which comments I should toss vs. the comments I should take to heart. I fiddled with my manuscript, tried to please critter #1 without losing what critter #7 found so fantastic. And suddenly, I didn't recognize my own work anymore. I tossed the new revision and let the feedback simmer in the back of my mind until I was ready for it. And then I realized, some of the feedback didn't have anything to do with my writing at all. Some of the feedback was more about the reader. I can't always anticipate, or control the reaction a reader has to my work. All I can do is remain true to my main character's (MC) voice and perspective.

Here's a two-line excerpt from DAUGHTER OF THE MOON which generated wildly different reactions:

Original Text:

The dream still felt familiar, as they all did, but unlike any others before it, this dream had left an impression on her soul. Even the air felt heavy with significance.

Critique #1,  #5, #6 and #7: (No comments from the critter)

Critique #2:

The dream still felt familiar, as they all did, but unlike any others before it, this dream had left an impression on her soul. Even the air felt heavy with significance??

Critique #3:

The dream still felt familiar, as they all did, but unlike any others before it, this dream had left an impression on her soul. What does an impression on a soul feel like? I know we can all resonate with an impression on our minds, but what makes this feeling different? Even the air felt heavy with significance.

Critique #4:

It still felt familiar, as they all did, but unlike any others before it, this dream had left an impression on her soul (would she know it was her soul?), somewhere deep within. Even the air felt heavy with significance the lingering scent of mist, and something else, like charred matter (or something, you get my drift, I think 'significance' lacks significance here).

Critique #8

The dream still felt familiar, as they all did, but unlike any others before it, this dream had left an impression on her soul. (I think I can imagine what that feels like, though it does sound a bit cliched and melodramatic.)Even the air felt heavy with significance. (Similar to Poe's "The Raven": "Then methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer"...nice allusion...)

Critique #9:

The dream still felt familiar, as they all did, but unlike any others before it, this dream had left an impression on her soul. The wording here needs to be altered. Some people would scoff at the idea that 'one dream' could leave an impression on someone's soul. Even the air felt heavy with significance.

Nearly half of those who commented didn't seem to think it was possible for an experience to leave an impression on the soul. One didn't seem to think it was impossible, and the rest didn't mention anything about these two sentences. Personally, I don't know what I think about the human soul - but I know how my MC sees the matter. So I left the sentence alone.