Heather McCorkle's Cover Reveal! The Dragon Empire

Goodreads

The Dragon Empire by Heather McCorkle -- February 2013 / Compass Press

On Yacrana, dragons stand at the top of the evolutionary ladder instead of humans. Such an advanced species is not without its issues though.  

There's trouble in the Dragon Empire, the kind that could start a war between dragons and the races of people. Hidden factions of dragons believe they should rule the lesser races, not simply stand aside and allow them to develop as they will. Having lived so long in peace, the Emperors turn a blind eye, many oblivious that such attitudes even exist.  

Despite being only an architect class, emerald dragon, Grendar is willing to risk banishment and death to stop that which his rulers refuse to see. The hope of peace lies not within the scaled breast of a dragon however, but within the hands of a group of people. But if the hidden factions have their way, these people won’t live to fulfill such a destiny. With a reluctant seer at his side, Grendar must leave his precious Empire for the outside world to save those that will one day save his kind. 

Heather McCorkle is one of those lovely authors who is always paying it forward, introducing me to great new books on her blog, and generally making the online writing community the warm, fluffy place it is. It is with great pleasure that I join in the fun of revealing the cover for her coming book...

The Dragon Empire! 

Compass Press is a great publisher who has also recently published Shadows of the Hidden by Anne Riley, another one of my favorite writers. I'm looking forward to reading The Dragon Empire when it's released next month!

Here's a little more about the author:

AUTHOR BIO

Heather McCorkle

I am an author of fantasy, in all its many sub-genres. Living green, saving endangered species, helping other writers, and supporting fabulous authors are a few of my passions. I am also a volunteer for the IS Foundation which works to make the world a greener place. When I'm not volunteering, writing, or surfing my social networking sites, I can be found on the slopes, the hiking trails, or on horseback. As a native Oregonian, I enjoy the outdoors almost as much as the worlds I create on the pages. No need to travel to the Great Northwest though, you can find me here, on my blog, and Monday night's on Twitter where I co-moderate the #WritersRoad chat.

Author Links:

Website

Goodreads

Facebook

Twitter

That Weird Movie is an Awesome Book

Ever watched a movie that was just so weird, you wondered how it possibly got past the movie gatekeepers, let alone onto the silver screen? 

That weird movie is an awesome book.

It's true. Most weird movies started out as a book somewhere, and the reason they got made in the first place is because books are freaking awesome. Most of us love to see our favorite characters brought to life by a dedicated actor/actress.

The problem is that some things are hard to translate. 

In a book, there's nuance, subtext, etc. You can do this in a movie, but only if the makers are dedicated to the book's themes. If they're just making the movie because they know it has a built-in fan base and are hoping to make a quick buck, the movie fails.

The book was a work of art. The movie can only be a work of art if as much love, attention to detail, and interest in the THEME goes into it as went into the book.

The Hogfather - movie


The Hogfather - book


Case in point, the Hogfather, about Death taking the place of Father Christmas and a gothic governess who must save the day, is both a movie and a book.

Where is the big jolly fat man?Why is Death creeping down chimneys and trying to say Ho Ho Ho? The darkest night of the year is getting a lot darker...
Susan the gothic governess has got to sort it out by morning, otherwise there won't be a morning. Ever again...

I first saw it on Netflix Watch Instantly, and five minutes into it, I thought, "This is the weirdest movie I've ever seen."

Five minutes ago (roughly), I read Max Gladstone's blog post about the book and thought to myself, "Aha! It's not a weird movie. It's just a book!"

HO. HO. HO.
If you’re one of those unlucky folks out there who hasn’t read Hogfather, you’re in for a treat when you finally do get around to it.  Hogfather’s so much fun to read.  Terry Pratchett writing at the height of his powers produces a book that skewers and exults Christmas at the same time.  (As the Death books tend to do with their subject matter.)  Pratchett can do something few other writers dare to try: gutpunch you while you’re laughing, without spoiling the laughter.  At his best, he makes me want to laugh and cry and start a revolution all at the same time.

Have you ever seen a movie and wondered what the writers were smoking? Chances are, it's a book, too.

Share your favorite weird movie/books below.

Honoring the Writers Creed 2013 (created by S.A. Larsen)

S.A. Larsen has a new writer's creed for 2013 and I love it! So I've joined in. You can go to THE ORIGINAL POST and sign up to be part of it as well. 

If you choose to honor this creed with me, please add your name to the Linky list. Cut and paste either size badge to your site and link back to this post. It'd be great if we could get a ton of writers to take this and reconnect throughout the year. 

I love the goals in the creed, too:

take writing breaks
balance social media
be a writer every day

Those are all things I struggle with as a writer. I hope you'll join in, too, and commit to being your best self and the best writer you can be in 2013.


IN OTHER NEWS:

• THE WINNERS have been announced in our NYRC Grand Finale Giveaway, and there are TWELVE of them!

• I've written about CANKERING CONFLICT at Operation Awesome today, as well. I'd love it if you stopped by to read and comment. 

I'll be doing my MG rewrite today. What are you writing?

Blog Chain: Writing Project WIP's

It was my turn to think of a question, and I was curious about everybody's writing life:

Write about your next writing project. What is the genre? Is is one you've written before or is it a new venture? Do you have it all figured out or is it just a germ of an idea? What did you learn from your latest writing project that will make this one even better?

My next writing projects:

• co-writing a YA time travel novel that's more of a coming of age with sci-fi elements
• re-drafting an MG radioactive mutant hero novel about war and the quest for peace
• beginning a first draft of a YA paranormal romance containing themes of societal stigma, death, and resurrection

After working on two YA paranormal romances, one more playful, the other darker, I hit sort of a wall in my writing. Why? Revision time! I hate it. 

Well, hated, past tense. 

The New Year's Revisions Conference was exactly what I needed. I got so many great ideas, including the fabulous Save the Cat 15 beats for screenwriters which Christine Fonseca recommended. 

On goodreads

Bought the e-book of Save the Cat, skipped ahead to the chapter on beats, and never looked back. In one night, I re-outlined my MG radioactive mutant hero novel so that even I can't wait to see what happens. It's going to be fun to write! 

The reason revision always kicked my butt before was my lack of structure. I was just sort of reading and rereading over and over again, looking for things to fix. Sometimes I'd read a blog post by another writer about one particular aspect of story and I'd revise for that. But there was no order to it. I just kept hoping this round of revision would make my story shiny enough, whatever that meant. Christine's post on revision was eye-opening for me. Human beings love our freedom, but we also crave structure. 

It's only when we have boundaries to push against that we can truly be creative.  

I learned from my last few novels that I'm ready. I've been working on my voice, my style, my wordsmithing for years now. I'm ready to implement a solid structure in my novels, and I've chosen the screenwriting structure by Blake Snyder to do that.

So here is the status of each of my three projects right now:

1) YA time travel I'm co-writing with my sister: about a third of the way done with the rough draft. It's still exciting. It's still fun. And we're just getting into the Fun and Games beat.

2) MG radioactive mutant hero novel: I've got a killer new outline to which I need to add specific scenes, then buckle down and write. My excitement for this one has been rekindled by the New Year's Revisions Conference and Save the Cat.

3) YA Paranormal Romance: These tend to come from dreams I've had. I often start them and then let them sit for a while. That might be the fate of this one as I've already got a lot on my plate. But I'm fleshing it out whenever a new idea comes to mind, and I hope I'll get to write it as soon as I'm done with the first drafts of 1 and 2.

My challenge as an artist is to focus long enough to get a job done. I've done it six times before, so I know I can do it again.

What are you writing today?

Read all about Christine Fonseca's upcoming projects and don't miss out on her FREE LACRIMOSA and MEA CULPA deal on amazon (only today and tomorrow). 

Tomorrow check out Lisa Amowitz's blog for her works-in-progress/upcoming writing projects. 

Rilla Alexander: Without the Doing, Dreaming is Useless

I watched this today and just loved every second of what she's saying here. Why? Because I can relate to this! This is the way my ideas are born, grow wings... that melt in the sun and fall to their demise in the icy water below. :)

It doesn't have to be that way!

Watch and see what I mean:

 Also great reading: What to do when you fall into your old, less productive ways


How are you doing with your New Year's goals and revisions?

NYRC 2013 Final Day Linkies

*HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF AND GRATITUDE*

New Year's Revisions Conference 2013 comes to a close.

Thank you, THANK YOU, Thank you to our agents, authors, and editors for giving freely of their time and talents!

Thank you to the wonderful attendees who commented and shared the events. It was a blast getting to know you all. Be sure to enter the TWELVE-BOOK giveaway in the rafflecopter form below.

Here, without further ado, are the linkies from NYRC FINAL DAY 2013:

January 6th, 2013:

• 9:00 A.M.  The Dreaded Editor Letter: Confessions From Entangled Publishing Authors Rachel Harris, Lisa Burnstein, Cindi Madsen, and Amy Spaulding
• 10:00 A.M.  Lauren Morill: Revising Your Teen Voice
• 11:00 A.M. Gretchen McNeil: Write Drunk, Edit Sober
• 12:00 P.M.  Door Prize! Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne & Dave King
• 1:00 P.M.   Agent Q&A: Part III: Marketing and Publicity

Victoria Marini 

Kathleen Rushall

Natalie Lakosil 

Josh Getzler

Laura Bradford

Erin Harris

• 2:00 P.M.   Gennifer Albin: How I Revise
• 3:00 P.M.   Door Prize Winner Announced
• 4:00 P.M.   Anne Riley: Druid Magic and the Orb of No-Where, No-When
• 5:00 P.M.   Grand Finale Giveaway:

PRIZES:

NYRC Day 2 Linkies - and a Door Prize in ten minutes

Yesterday's linkies from New Year's Revisions Conference 2013 at Operation Awesome:

January 5th, 2013:

• 9:00 A.M. Christine Fonseca: Devil in the Details: Editing for Content
• 10:00 A.M. Phoebe North: Goal, Motivation, And Conflict
• 11:00 A.M. Cole Gibsen: Writing And Revising A Different Culture
• 12:00 P.M. Elana Johnson: Character Consistency: Letting Characters Be Themselves
• 1:00 P.M. Agent Q&A: Part II: Querying

Victoria Marini 
Kathleen Rushall
Natalie Lakosil 
Josh Getzler
Laura Bradford
Erin Harris

• 2:00 P.M. Georgia McBride: Secondary Characters Who Sizzle
• 3:00 P.M. E. J. Patten: Believable Monsters: Cthulhu Ate My Mother, Or the Rise and Fall of Human-Flavored Nougat.
• 4:00 P.M. Erin Molta: Revisions From An Editor’s POV

What a great day! Operation Awesome finally did away with the captchas that used to be required to comment, and the comments doubled. Yay for more conversation! And yay for more opportunities for commenters to win the $15 amazon gift card we're giving away at the end of the conference! 

Later today I'll post Day 3 linkies and the conference will be over. 

:( 

But no worries. These links will be around for a long time to come, offering you all the wisdom of this year's New Year's Revisions Conference whenever you need it most, even in July. 

:)

If you've been enjoying the conference, please check out the Conference Book Shop to support our participants by enjoying their books. 

And today at NOON CENTRAL, there's a DOOR PRIZE GIVEAWAY! So make sure you're there to throw your name in the hat.