Ripple by Mandy Hubbard: New COVER!!

Mandy Hubbard has a new book in the works. It's not out yet. YOU WISH just did come out, though, if you'd like a taste of her wonderful writing! (She also wrote PRADA & PREJUDICE, which looks adorable!)

And now she's giving us:

RIPPLE

I know, right?

Here's the blurb, which makes her come-hither-stay-away stare perfectly understandable:

Eighteen year old Lexi is cursed--by  day, she's just like every other teen at Lincoln CIty High. But from dusk until dawn, she's forced to swim and sing, a modern day siren. At sixteen, her voice became a deadly lure, and Steven-- the only boy she's ever loved-- followed her straight into the story surf and drowned.

Now, Lexi spends her nights at a forgotten lake up in the mountains, where she can swim and sing in peace. She's become an ice queen, forced to keep everyone around her at arm's length in order to protect them. 

That is, until Cole comes to town. Cole, with his dark good looks and prying questions. She can't seem to keep him away, and she's no longer sure she wants to. But how can she let him in when it can only end in his death?

Coming in August, 2011, from Razorbill/Penguin!

Are you excited yet? :-)

I am.

WriteOnCon is Live!! (and free, people. free!)

If you've managed to miss the widget to the side of this blog counting down the days to WriteOnCon, I'm posting a reminder:

WRITEONCON IS GOING ON!!

Sorry for yelling, but this is seriously epic! You simply must drop everything and check it out right now.

Try the main site WriteOnCon.com, but if that doesn't work (too much traffic, methinks), skip on over to Elana Johnson's blog where all the vlogs and articles are being posted until the site gets running again.

When the site DOES get up and running, simply register for free to take part in the forums, critiques, and chats. I'm very excited. Can you tell?

SOULLESS by Gail Carriger: My Review

    
There's a new rising star in the steampunk genre, and her name is Gail Carriger. You've likely heard me talking about her book, Soulless, for the past month or so, calling it "Jane Austen meets Buffy". Her voice and characters truly are delightful! Fans of Austen, Victorian London, alternate histories, the supernatural, and steampunk will all find something to love in the Parasol Protectorate series, as it is called.

Summary (from the book jacket)

Alexia Tarabotti is labouring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette. 

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire - and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate. 

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

In an interview at the back of my e-copy, Gail Carriger said:

 "If immortals were mucking about, wouldn't they have been mucking about for a very long time? A speculation arose: what if all those strange and unexplainable bends in history were the result of supernatural interference? At which point I asked myself, what's the weirdest most eccentric historical phenomenon of them all? Answer: the Great British Empire. Clearly, one tiny little island could only conquer half the known world with supernatural aid. Those absurd Victorian manners and ridiculous fashions were obviously dictated by vampires. And, without a doubt, the British army regimental system functioned on werewolf pack dynamics."

Don't you just love her already? Well, pick up Soulless, and it will be clinched. Her debut novel is extraordinarily well-written, tightly plotted, and humorous. And I'm not the only one who thinks so! Check out this review from a man! A man!

I found the main character charming and flabbergasting, much as Lord Maccon finds her, coincidentally. She's not overly feminine, which is part of her charm. She's more interested in treacle tart than she ought to be, for one. She carries a silver-tipped parasol for another. And finally, she insists upon reading all the latest scientific thought, making her much too educated for her mother's liking. The flabbergasting part is how insecure she is about her attractiveness. In a way, I suppose it's charming, too. But I was ready to shake her near the end when she was still unsure of the main man's amorous feelings for her.

In the end.... No, I'm not going to give away the end. And I must warn you that reading the summary blurb on Book the Second of the Parasol Protectorate series will give away a very important plot point from Book the First. So don't do it. You will want to enjoy every delicious second of hairy, sweaty, supernatural suspense.

*Warning to parents: not a YA novel. Sexy scenes imminent.

If you need further encouragement to buy the book, check out this fanmade book trailer.

Web Launch: The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog

It's finally up!!

The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog has moved to its own server, to make room for all the traffic they'll be getting under the new format. It's interactive! That's right. You can register a username and participate in discussions on every topic under the literary sun.

The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog is an informative, fast-casual news site featuring industry news, essays, interviews, and book commentary. At the BDCWB, we are committed to empowering writers in all stages of their craft. We are relevant. We are accessible. We are interesting. And we are here to preserve the printed word.

These people are professionals with...ahem...impeccable taste.

I have to say that because they're running one of my articles. Check it out:

Lists: Even Pantsers Use Them

and remember when they gave me an award for Best #Dearpublisher tweet?

But even before I got involved, it was clear this unique web site for writers is a class act. Just look at their Who We Are page! It pretty much sums up the innovative spirit and booklove bent that goes into everything they do.

So if you're getting excited to read and participate, I recommend you first stop by the Headlines page! So much literary goodness in one place!

And while you're at it, follow them on twitter for literary news and commentary of the day: @BDCWB  

See you there!

More Gushing About Operation Awesome

I love my critique group! 

So far, I've received feedback from three of my five group members on my first twenty pages, and already I feel more confident about my WIP! This is a big deal because I was totally discouraged about it not a week ago.

The fabulous thing about their feedback is that it's so individual. I had to laugh at one point when one person suggested I cut a phrase that another person absolutely loved. Having both their perspectives at the same time really helped me to understand my own work better.

I could see how it was being received in general (where they agreed) and which parts would be loved/hated depending on the reader. For the latter, I go with my gut instincts. For the former, I happily revise according to their consensus. And it makes my book better.

If you haven't found yourselves a critique group, I highly recommend putting one together yourself. Chat up one of your favorite twitterer-writers, or connect with somebody in a writing forum (absolutewrite.com or querytracker.com). The worst you have to fear is that they'll say no thanks. But once you find somebody you click with (preferably who writes in your genre, too), you will wonder how you got along without them!

Okay, I'm off to write my work in progress.

Stay tuned for news about our new collaborative Operation Awesome blog. It's going to be epic.

You Want Me to Change WHAT?

We all know how important it is to accept criticism of our work gracefully. After all, readers, critique partners, and agents are only trying to help us make our book the best it can be. We're all in this business because we love story! So why is it so hard to accept criticism? I think there are a few reasons:

• Deep down, what we really want when we share our work is for people to say it's perfect, because that would mean that WE'RE perfect, which is perfect. 
• Sometimes criticism is simply a matter of opinion. Therefore, it's easy to extrapolate that out to: all criticism is wrong opinion!
• We have an idea of what we're willing to change in our story (the protagonist's favorite color, a side character's foreign accent, the sequence of events leading up to the climax). When someone dares to suggest we change anything BEYOND that, it's horrifying. What?! You want me to change the point of view? The tense? The climax? The age--and therefore entire setting--of my characters? 

NO!! cries the inner delicate flower that is our writing soul. Say it ain't so!!

But it is so. That's why we submitted the book for critique in the first place. We knew there were imperfections that needed weeding out. We even guessed there might be structural problems. We just weren't sure how to fix them. That's where the critical reader came into the picture with advice we weren't quite ready to receive.

Did we shoot the messenger?

Today I vow to make a greater effort to accept literary criticism with grace and appreciation, with an eye toward improving the story at all costs--even if it means rewriting the whole darn thing! 

And above all, I will not shoot the messenger!

Want to join my e-pact? You don't need to sign your name. Just whisper the above vow to yourself (or say it in your head if your cat is giving you a look). Nobody will know but you. And you're the only one who needs to.    

Hash tag #16YrOldMemoir: Justin Bieber vs. You

Whose 16-year-old memoir would be cooler? Yours or Justin Bieber's?

Did you know Justin Bieber is publishing a memoir with HarperCollins? True story.

Now you can write yours, too, in 140 characters or fewer. Have fun! Here's mine:

@katrinalantznov Lifeguarding. Taking the ACT. Starting a swing-dancing club. Reading about all the far-away potential colleges. Dating. My#16YrOldMemoir