Teaser Tuesday: LOVE ME OR LET ME DIE

I know it's a bit self-indulgent to post clips of your own work. But I'm excited about this story, have spent many late nights writing it, and I'm feeling self-indulgent. So here's a taste of the dark paranormal romance I'm writing with a few holes in the narrative for which I hope you'll forgive me. My main character Lucy is eighteen in the summer after graduation. I'm still trying to decide if that makes it YA or the mythical beast called New Adult. I think the rest is self-explanatory. 

Lucy decided her stupid empath abilities were to blame for the kiss with Chase. He was feeling attracted. Ergot, she was feeling it, too, secondhand. But it wasn't real. Not like what she had with Nick.

She sighed into her pillow and swore not to think about Chase for another second. Saturdays were for Nick. Every day was for Nick.

.... {removed spoilers}

She'd sworn not to think about Chase, and she totally wasn't. She was thinking about herself—her abilities. Just because he shared those abilities didn't mean she had to think about what he did with them.

"Gah!" She buried her head underneath the pillow. It was like Mac's mean trick one day on set when she was bored. "I dare you not to think of a giant, flashing red number twenty-four." Then he'd walked away, and Lucy had tried really hard not to think of that stupid flashing number. She still saw it sometimes when she closed her eyes. The forbidden thought that wouldn't leave.

That was Chase Gillan. 

She called Nick on the drive over to the costume shop. She only wanted to hear his voice, to remember why she'd fallen head over heels for him. To forget the red flashing twenty-four in her mental rear-view mirror.  

"Good morning, my light," his sleepy voice purred.

If there was anything Nick was made for, it was making Lucy forget. She almost ran a stop sign. "Hey, sexy," she answered. "I miss you. Thanks for the flowers."

"Of course." She could hear his smile through the phone.

... {spoilers removed}

She'd been tossing in bed last night for another reason besides Chase and his confusing kiss. No matter how she figured things, Nick had something to do with her burgeoning sensitivity to the paranormal. So could she trust him with her secrets? Did he already know?

Lucy could really use some of that famous lucent clarity about now. 


Thanks for the shout-out, Tiffany!

Writing Lesson of the Day: Stressed Out Character

Now for Lesson Number 3:

Stress out your characters.

I NEED A VACATION!

Your main character should be yelling, "I need a vacation!"

Think of Harry Potter (because it's just a freaking awesome example of everything). He felt some stress from homework and exams and starting at a new (magic!) school. Add in Quidditch, which his dad was apparently amazing at, and everyone expected him to be amazing, too. There were budding friendships conflicted by Ron and Hermione's love/hate vibe. And meanwhile, everybody knew who he was and either idolized him from babyhood or hated his guts before he even said hello.

Worst of all, nobody knew if the murderer who killed his parents and a bunch of other people was really dead. Most people seemed to think he wasn't. Then partway through the book, he gets the news that Voldemort is coming after him, the 11-year-old who somehow made him disappear.

Yeah, that eleven-year-old knew stress. Over seven books, it just gets worse until in the fifth book readers started to complain that Harry was impossible to live with. Well yeah! Dude was 15 and going through hell!

But even though it would have made a delightful, fun book if Harry's only stresses were new magic school, new magic sports team, new magic friends, it wouldn't be the epic story we're all familiar with.

So when you're writing, don't shy away from the stresses you usually shy away from in your personal life. Nobody wants to have the level of stress Harry Potter had at age 11. But we all want to read about him overcoming those stresses. That's what fiction is all about.

Is your main character past due on his mortgage and stuck in a salary freeze with hospital bills rolling in? That's great, but now you need to set some loan sharks after him and his wife.

Ramp up the stakes. Just when they think they've got it figured out, change the rules.

...Until your character really does need a vacation. And then, when they've survived the worst you can throw at them, for pete's sake, give them that vacation! :)

This Writing Lesson brought to you by Sprouts apple cinnamon granola and six hours of sleep.

See Lesson Number 1

and

Lesson Number 2

Start in the Middle

Start in the middle...

And see how it fits together.

I pulled a Stephenie Meyer and started writing a dark paranormal romance based on a dream.

It's not about vampires, and my MC isn't in high school. But there's one other similarity between Twilight and my WIP:

I started writing in the middle. 

Remember how Stephenie Meyer dreamed up that delicious meadow scene about a boy and a girl having an intense conversation: how they shouldn't be together because he wanted to kill her?

It didn't make sense as a beginning because the reader would have no idea how they met, how their romance developed to the point where this was even an issue. And it would have been hard to believe they had time to develop a romance before he just gave in to temptation and ate her.

So Meyer had to write a new beginning that met up with the meadow scene, one that made you WANT them to be together. 

It's an intriguing concept, writing the main conflict first. When we dream, our minds take us through stories, but beginning, middle, and end aren't as crisp as a novel. Often, we're thrown right into the dark hallway, running for our lives. Our minds fill in the details later: drug dealers chasing us because they think we have their designer drug, a monster who wants to eat our faces off, whatever it is.

In other words, you take off running and catch up with yourself later. There's a writing philosophy in there somewhere. And I think I want to embrace it and give it passionate kisses, because it's helped me to write almost a complete novel in a month without forcing it.

I'm still working on connecting the new beginning to the middle-beginning. My dream gave me the main conflict - a creepy, bone-chilling conflict. But it didn't give me any backstory. That was for me to fill in. Getting to know the girl in my dream (who isn't me but I wouldn't mind it during those steamy scenes), and getting to know the villain who's chasing her - it's been an exciting adventure.

Sure, there have been a few bumps, times when the new backstory rendered a shocking revelation in the second half obsolete. But it's just your typical first draft plot holes, things you face no matter what you write first.

My main take-away from this experience has been this: When I write first the scene that's screaming to be written, it makes the rest worth writing.

Wishing I'd tried this sooner.


What do you think? Midnight craziness on my part or is there something to this?

Epic Contest: The Micro Synopsis judged by John Cusick

Agent (and author of Girl Parts) John Cusick is doing a contest at YAtopia!

John Cusick tweets here

An epic contest!

The Micro Synopsis...

Can you write a synopsis for your MG or YA book (beginning, middle, and end) in THREE sentences? I tried it. It was hard. You can try it, too.

Enter in the comments HERE.

P.S. WriteOnCon, my favorite online conference in THE WORLD is starting in ten days. TEN days.

p.p.s. I'm now fairly certain the SHIFT key works. Good luck in the micro synopsis contest, my friends!


p.p.p.s. I'm over at Operation Awesome today talking about EPIPHANY!

Introducing Becky Mahoney!

Becky is our newest Afterglow contributor, and a writer whose one-line pitch has won more than one Mystery Agents' praise in the monthly Operation Awesome contests.

She wrote this:

Title: THE HUNGRY GROUND 

Genre: YA Fantasy/Horror

When the population of a nearby city vanishes overnight, aspiring detective Kalinda joins the search party - but the city isn't empty.  

Yesterday, she wrote about joining Afterglow and her first review. Today she's hanging out over there to answer questions. 

Here's her bio to get your curiosity working:

I'm a twenty-something assistant extraordinaire with a love of good food, animated films, and budget-busting fashion. I'm an aspiring YA author, and I write fantasy, mystery, and horror - sometimes a mix of all three!

Head over to her blog and welcome her, to the blogosphere (she's only been blogging since June), to Afterglow Book Reviews, and onto your reading list. Also, meet her on twitter.


p.s. 11 days left till WriteOnCon, the annual free online writing conference for kidlit-ers (that sounds dirty; maybe I won't use that word again) that is a DO-NOT-MISS event.

 p.p.s. I wrote 5k words last night. Pret-ty proud of my myself. *rolling on my toes like a kid with a good report card* You can see by my progress bar in the sidebar, I'm 70% done with this dark paranormal romance. Yay!

Interview with children's author Michelle Raynor: A Magical World

Michelle McLean writes children's books under the name Michelle Raynor, and her first one came out this summer! A Magical World, illustrated by Toni Wilson.

Alex and his sister Izzy are stuck inside during one stormy, rainy week. But, they still manage to have the most spectacular adventures. They sail the seven seas on a pirate ship, swing on jungle vines, swim through the ocean, roam with the dinosaurs, and visit many other fantastic places! Just how, they never tell a soul. They simply smile and wink and zip their lips, and then disappear into their room. Into a wonderful, magical world.

I got the opportunity to ask her some questions about her writing and specifically about this wonderful book and what it's like writing in vastly different genres, from picture books to regency fiction to humorous how-to's. I hope you enjoy reading her answers as much as I did! Here's Michelle!

Michelle McLean

Katrina:      How pivotal were your own children in the inspiration of A Magical World?

Michelle: Extremely J In fact, they were my little co-authors for this book. The power went out one stormy afternoon and the kids were bored and a little scared by the thunder. I often make up bedtime stories for my kids, so we sat down and I started telling them a story. Every time the kids in the story would disappear into their magic world, I let the kids tell me where they’d like to go. We ended up on a pirate ship, in the jungle, as dinosaurs and race cars. And it all ended up in the book J I also let the kids choose the names of the characters in the book.

Katrina:      There’s a misconception that children’s books are somehow easier to write because they’re shorter. How long did it take you to get A Magical World ready for press?

Michelle: I can actually get the first draft out pretty quickly. Revisions take longer, though not nearly as long as a novel, of course J To be honest, I’m not sure how long it took me to get A Magical World done…I wrote it several years ago and it languished in a file until recently. LOL. If I’m not working on any other projects at the same time, with all focus on the picture book, I can get one done in a couple weeks. Not counting the illustrations, of course, though Toni Wilson, my illustrator for this book, is INCREDIBLE. She can get a final copy picture done in 2 or 3 days.

Katrina:      I love a good subplot in a picture book. Whose idea was the rubber ducky on each page?

Michelle: That was my illustrator’s idea. Actually, I think her son came up with it. We added a couple in just to see how it would look and we just fell in love with the cute little guy :D

Katrina:     How many books in this series have you already written, or plan to write?

Michelle: This particular book is a stand alone, but my next book is the first in the My Favorites series. The first book will be My Favorite Kind of Toot and will hopefully be out by the end of the summer. I have three other books in this series done so far (manuscripts, not with pictures yet), including My Favorite Kind of Kiss, My Favorite Kind of Cuddle, and My Favorite Kind of Sneeze. I have a few others ready to work on – there are endless possibilities for this series J

I am also working on another book in a totally different style, with a good friend of mine, writer and artist Lisa Amowitz. Our book is called Lyria’s Extraordinary Wish and is much more lyrical/poetic with just stunning pictures. My books with Toni are much more cutely humorous J

Katrina:      Do you listen to any different kind of music when you write for children as opposed to when you write for teens and adults?

Michelle: I don’t generally listen to music when I write, period, though I will sometimes listen to the Film Scores station on Pandora or classical music when writing for teens/adults. (Editing is a different matter, as is “getting in the mood” – I have playlists for that). For my kids’ books, I don’t listen to music. I get that first draft out very quickly, usually just a day. And then I have to go back through and clean everything up J When I do my kids’ books I tend to go into short periods of extreme concentration that music just doesn’t help J

Katrina:      You’re one of those rare cross-genre authors! Tell us a little about what you’ve published in the past and what you plan to publish in the future?

Michelle: You know, one thing I love about what I do is the variety. Writing different genres allows me to explore several different sides of my creativity and it’s just a blast. Plus, since my NF books and novels are (or will be) published traditionally, and my picture books are self-published, I get to experience both sides of the industry. It really is incredibly interesting being involved in both worlds.

My very first published book was the NF Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers. I have two new NF books currently on submission – Poetry Pointers, and How to Put the Analysis in Your Literary Essay. I am working on revisions on a historical novel with my agent right now and will hopefully be submitting that soon.

And as I said above, My Favorite Kind of Toot should be out by the end of the summer. I’ll probably release one more picture book by the end of the year, though I haven’t decided which one just yet J Lisa and I are going to go the traditional route with Lyria’s Extraordinary Wish and will be subbing that out in the next few months.

Katrina:      Those sound so cute! What’s your advice to children who want to write books for publication?

Michelle: Write what you love and what you’d want to read. And don’t give up no matter how hard it is. There are a lot of setbacks, a lot of disappointment, and it can take a very long time. But if this is what you really want to do, then do it, no matter what J

Katrina: Make up your own question here. What do you wish someone would ask you?

Michelle: A lot of people ask me about why I chose to write under a pen name – first off, my agent suggested it J Though I originally was opposed to the idea (I really wanted to see MY name on the shelves), I ended up agreeing. Since I write in multiple genres that are so vastly different, I thought it would be a good idea to use different names to help keep my audiences separate. If I just wrote YA and adult novels, I probably would have stuck with one name.

But I want my picture book readers to be able to easily find more picture books, my non-fiction readers to easily find more NF books, and my novel readers to easily find more novels. If I wrote everything under one name then a novel reader might do a search and find NF books or picture books and assume I didn’t have any other novels, etc. Writing under different names helps me avoid any confusion.

So, my NF books are under my own name, Michelle McLean. My picture books are under Michelle Raynor (the last name is a mixture of my children’s names), and my novels are under MacKenna Marquis (my niece’s name and my maiden name – my full maiden name is already in use by another writer) J

Thank you!

Where to find A Magical World:

Smashwords – (epub version for any ereader available here) 

Barnes & Noble

Apple (via the iBookstore)

Amazon Kindle

Amazon Paperback

Diesel

Lulu (paperback version)

Goodreads

Coming soon to Borders for Kobo, Sony, and Scrollmotion

Mystery Agent Contest for August

Mystery Agent contest is going on RIGHT NOW over here. CONTEST NOW CLOSED.

If you have a completed novel in one of the listed genres, our agent would love to see your one-line pitch. Entry limit 50, so don't hesitate. :)


SUCCESS STORY: Max Gladstone's THREE PARTS DEAD which won Weronika's undivided attention in the December 2010 Mystery Agent contest at Operation Awesome, has been sold to TOR! Story here.

Shallee McArthur reviewed TRUE SPIRIT by Jessica Watson, a true narrative of a girl's solo sailing trip around the world. It sounds uh-MAY-zing! 

What are you up to this fine Monday morning? (Pacific time, it's still morning.) :)