Jinx: The Hazard of Writing about Bad Luck

Source, to buy

On my way back from checking the mail, I tripped and fell down on the asphalt while holding my baby. It was a scary half-second, but instead of falling on my baby and crushing him, my mom superpowers kicked in and I rolled, arching my arm around his little head as we fell. It happened so fast, though.

Totally rattling. I was rattled.

And then when I had time to process what had happened, I thought (a) Yay for maternal instinct! (baby didn't get a scratch, though I lost some skin), and (b) man, what rotten luck!

Rotten luck. It's the curse of Graylyn Stephens, my MC in COULD BE WORSE. But why am I suddenly seized with it? Is bad luck contagious? Did I jinx myself by daring to write about forces I can't possibly hope to understand?

*knock on wood*

What do you think? Have you ever felt jinxed? And should I keep writing COULD BE WORSE? (I'm 19k words into it.)

Blog Chain: Mash-ups and Re-tellings

Margie's topic: Pick a book or story and imagine it in a new genre. For example, what would Oliver Twist be like if it was a sci-fi novel. Would Fagin have been a robot? Do you prefer your new creation or the original?"

Okay, just for fun let's imagine Romeo and Juliet ...

as a YA Paranormal Romance. 

Sixteen-year-old Romeo Montague, a nice boy from a nice family is as intrigued as anybody else when the Capulet family moves in. Parents, daughter, cousins, aunts: they all have perfect bodies, loads of cash, and impeccable style. But when Romeo finds out about the rivalry between his father and Joe Capulet going all the way back to elementary school, he understands Juliet Capulet is off limits. 

The Capulets have a secret, a reason for returning to Huckleberry Falls after a decade away. Juliet is about to come of age, whatever that means. Romeo's best friend Mercutio overheard Joe Capulet whisper of taking her to the top of the highest waterfall for some strange ritual. For the boring old hick town of Huckleberry Falls, this sounds like opening night at a rock 'n roll concert, so of course he wouldn't miss it for the world. But what they expect to be entertainment turns to tragedy when Juliet's demented cousin hears Mercutio snickering and throws him over the Falls to a stony death. Juliet, glowing like a firefly, dives into the abyss after him, lifting his broken body as if it were weightless. Her tears fall on his face, and Mercutio awakens from death.

But Mercutio will never be the same. His wicked wit gone, he jumps at shadows and whispers to himself about angels and gods, turning him from Mr. Popular into the Huckle High resident freak, and Romeo into his always-angry protector. Romeo mourns the loss of his friend while having to defend him from the cruel kids in school who are only too happy to take revenge for all the cutting things Mercutio used to say. To make matters worse, Juliet keeps trying to edge her way into Romeo's life, inviting him back to the Falls and certain death at the hands of her kin. 

In his nightmares, he sees her, the angel of justice, meting out God's wrath upon him. Then the nightmares melt into dreams of soft ruby lips and the smell of honeysuckle in the mist. He's at the falls with her again, as at home in her arms as his own childhood bedroom. In horror, he awakes, shivering and wet at Huckleberry Falls. How many nights has he gone sleep-walking to the Falls? And why is Juliet's family staring at him as though he holds the key to their ascension?

Something has happened to him. He's glowing an eerie pale pink in the mist of the Falls. His memories unreliable at best, Romeo faces an impossible choice: betray his family's loyalty by helping their enemies gain ultimate power, or die at the hands of the fair Juliet.


Of course I'd prefer a YA Paranormal Romance to Shakespeare. His words were pretty, but I pretty much hate all his plots. :)

What do you think? Do you like mash-ups and re-tellings?

Check out Christine Fonseca's thoughts from yesterday and Demitria Lunetta's tomorrow.

IndieReCon: IndieReCon Schedule/Agenda

What if I told you there was an online writer's conference going on today on the web... for free?

Well guess what! There is!

Check it out at the link below:

IndieReCon: IndieReCon Schedule/Agenda: IndieReCon Agenda Tues Feb. 19th - Thurs. Feb 21st) (This conference is in EST time zone) Note: Everything will remain online for ...

That Can't-Breathe Feeling: Anticipation

Source: Eleesha.com, Original inspirations

I've been excited lately, rather a lot. It's not that everything is working out perfectly for me. Far from it. It's just that I'm anticipating a lot of things.

I'm in the middle of my first project as an editorial assistant for Month9Books. As soon as I finish, they're going to send me another awesome pre-published book to pore through. In short, I'm loving this new job, at the same time I am terrified that I'll mess up and lose the opportunity. This results in that can't-breathe feeling, or what many authors have described as waiting with bated breath.

There are other areas of my life that give me that feeling, too. Of course, being a writer, I feel that way all the time about one project or another. Will this plot hole be resolved to the betterment of the book? Will my betas like the pages I sent? Will that agent ask for a partial, or a full? Will this finally be the one? Since I'm working on three writing projects simultaneously, I end up feeling the full emotional impact of these questions in triplicate.

Then there's the anticipation a parent feels for a child each time he shows his potential. I get that in triplicate, too. Hee hee. Three boys, triple the awesome, triple the mess.

Last but not least, it's been a long road with my husband's career and trying to end up where we want to be when we put down roots, finally get out of apartments, and decide to stay. We've moved 7 times and been married for 7 years. We just moved last November for the seventh time, and this isn't a permanent residence for us, either. As much as I may have loved being a rolling stone in my early twenties, that feeling is going away pretty fast as I near July and my thirtieth birthday. The feeling that's replaced it is...

anticipation.

It's not hope. It's not fear. It's just that in-between anxiousness that promises either/or. It's potential. It's almost promise.

Do you know this feeling? What has you feeling this way?

Pubslush: Kickstarter for Writers?

Pubslush 101

This just came to my attention and I already love it. I don't know if I'll ever use it for my own publication aspirations, but I've already pledged to support another author's writing project. I'm a sucker for good sci-fi, and the author I chose to support seems to know exactly what her goals are for this book/series, and how she wants to get there. You can find authors/books you want to support, or post your work and see how many people you can get on board.

I'm excited to see what authors do with this. People are endlessly creative, and I'm sure there are ways of using Pubslush that haven't been done yet.

What do you think about crowdsourcing/crowdfunding for the arts?

Bookish Fantasmic Across the Blogosphere Today

• First I wanted to blog about Angela Ackerman's fabulous Valentine's Day gift to writers:

Emotion Amplifiers, a free pdf download, and companion to

The Emotion Thesaurus

• But then I saw Kristal Shaff's COVER REVEAL of The Emissary and wanted to share that, too!

Add it on goodreads

So, as a result of my finding way too much awesome across the writerly blogosphere, you're getting a Bookish Fantasmic Across the Blogosphere Today post.

• BOOK LAUNCH of Straight Jacket by Meredith Towbin:

• ARC giveaway and COVER REVEAL of Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Add it on goodreads

• Matthew MacNish is talking about a real-life event in Russia today: Meteor hits populated area, injures 1,000 (video)

• Cole Gibsen blogs How I Can Afford to Stay Home and Write

Enjoy the Bookish Awesome!!!

THE CHAOS OF STARS by Kiersten White: Cover Reveal

Epic Reads revealed Kiersten White's cover for her November 2013-release, THE CHAOS OF STARS:

*faints from the pretty*

Isadora’s family is seriously screwed up.
Of course, as the human daughter of Egyptian gods, that pretty much comes with the territory. She’s also stuck with parents who barely notice her, and a house full of relatives who can’t be bothered to remember her name. After all, they are going to be around forever—and she’s a mere mortal.
Isadora’s sick of living a life where she’s only worthy of a passing glance, and when she has the chance to move to San Diego with her brother, she jumps on it. But Isadora’s quickly finding that a “normal” life comes with plenty of its own epic complications—and that there’s no such thing as a clean break when it comes to family. Much as she wants to leave her past behind, she can’t shake the ominous dreams that foretell destruction for her entire family. When it turns out there may be truth in her nightmares, Isadora has to decide whether she can abandon her divine heritage after all.

I love that this book has a young girl dealing with being normal around paranormals, so to speak, just like Paranormalcy did. Of course, Evie finds out she's a lot more than normal in that trilogy. Will Isadora discover she has more power than she thinks, too? Methinks so. :) 

Kiersten also has a psychological thriller called MIND GAMES coming out this month, but I haven't decided yet if I'm going to read it. I'm one of Kiersten White's biggest fangirls, pretty much from the moment I met her blog and her adorable book. But MIND GAMES is a different sort of book from what I generally read. It makes me nervous, the way HUNGER GAMES did when I first heard of it. I may cave and read it, but probably not before I have the pleasure of diving into Isadora's world in THE CHAOS OF STARS!

Squee! So excited!