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

Editorial Ass: some very quick thoughts on the present tense

What did the big teepee say to the little teepee?

"Relax, Relax! We're two tents!"

Okay, I butchered that already bad joke, but as you can see, I'm fascinated by tense today. Past tense. Present tense. Vinyl tents (Actually am taking the kids camping tomorrow night!).

This article, however, is specifically about PRESENT TENSE. It's the most succinct and practical explanation I've seen about the uses and abuses of present tense in novels. Pay attention and it might help you as much as it helped me:

Editorial Ass: some very quick thoughts on the present tense

edittorrent: Passive voice-- just some thoughts

Do you need a refresher on passive voice? Or maybe somebody accused you of using passive voice and you were like, "Passive whuh?"

Do yourself a favor and check out this post on the very enlightening edittorrent blog. I've known about it for one day, and already I've become a better writer because of it.

Why do you want to use active voice? Alicia has the answer:

Drama, power, conflict: Those are all in the active voice, and so you should default to active construction for livelier prose.

This short post was written by me (<--passive voice). But Alicia (active voice) wrote this longer, more useful one:

edittorrent: Passive voice-- just some thoughts

YOU WISH fan-made cover (Mandy Hubbard's newest book!)

My mock cover art for Mandy Hubbard's YOU WISH:

YOU WISH by MANDY HUBBARD


What if all your wishes really came true?

Kayla McHenry’s sweet sixteen sucks! Her dad left,
her grades dropped, and her BFF is dating the boy
Kayla’s secretly loved for years. Blowing out her candles,
Kayla thinks: I wish my birthday wishes actually
came true. Because they never freakin’ do.

Kayla wakes the next day to a life-sized, bright pink
My Little Pony outside her window. Then a year’s
supply of gumballs arrives. A boy named Ken with
a disturbing resemblance to the doll of the same
name stalks her. As the ghosts of Kayla’s wishes-past
appear, they take her on a wild ride . . . but they
MUST STOP. Because when she was fifteen? She
wished Ben Mackenzie would kiss her. And Ben is
her best friend’s boyfriend.





Above is my fan art cover remake of Mandy's exciting book. (photo credit to M@tty1378 on Flickr.com) The real cover (which I love) is pictured to the left. 


The book is coming out August 5th! Pre-order your copy now!




If you'd like to see more fan-made covers, go HERE.

Honorable Mention--It's not a Paranormalcy ARC

Remember that embarrassing contest entry I created and then posted as a permanent fixture at the top of my blog?

The results are in!

I did not win. :-( But I can't feel too bad because the winners were particularly spectacular! <--Say that five times fast. No, don't. I don't want to be sued when you sprain your tongue. ;-)

Check out the winners for yourself at Kiersten White's lovely, lovely blog.

I did get an honorable mention, complete with a link to my silliness on youtube, so I'm pretty excited about that!

Kiersten White knows I exist!

In other news (ah, who am I kidding; it's more about Paranormalcy): THE BOOK comes out in thirty-five days!!

The Joy of Community: a writer's haven from the cruel world

Didn't know what I was missing, till I found you...

I love my critique group. We just got started and my own work hasn't made the rounds yet, but the sense of community already has me smiling--and working harder on my writing. There are six of us in Operation Awesome, which is just the perfect size for a writing community that won't overwhelm its members. I've joined a few writing sites in my day, but have always been overwhelmed by the obligation of reading and critiquing dozens of other authors in order to receive critiques in kind. Writing novels is hard enough without adding that kind of unnecessary load. Of course I love reading other people's writing, but if you've ever tried the quid pro quo atmosphere of writing.com, thenextbigwriter.com, or authonomy.com, you see what I mean by OVERWHELMING. It's like this:

And only after climbing that stack can you actually get back to your OWN writing, which is kind of important if you plan on making a career out of this.

A well-organized critique group has writers taking turns submitting portions of their novels, or the whole thing one at a time. As a member, I have weekly "homework" of reading and critiquing two other writers' work (a chapter or two) plus working on my own WIP. It's manageable, it's fun, and it's educational. In between, we have discussion about each book in an online forum one of our members created. This model has already proven itself to be awesome (Operation Awesome, hee hee). We're only one week in, and I've been introduced to two very exciting books, done some serious revision on my own WIP, and had time to read some of the published books in my TBR pile. I couldn't be more excited to be part of this group.

How did it come about? It was magic. Well actually, it was Kristal's idea. :-)

I was hanging out on http://www.querytracker.net/forum/ --a very cool place to be! And Kristal mentioned needing a group to motivate her to write. Don't we all need something like that? It took me a while to get back to her because of summer vacations, but when I did, everything moved really fast. I invited Amparo, who invited Lindsay. Kristal invited Angie and Kelly. After some entertaining name discussion, we settled on OPERATION AWESOME and Kristal made our forum on grou.ps.

Two of our members are agented. One is multiply-published, and one has professional experience as an editor. All are talented writers, just from what I've seen so far! I'm feeling lucky/honored/unworthy to be part of this group, but I ain't gonna complain. Here they are if you want to check out their blogs/websites and support their writing journeys:

Angie, agented by Jill Corcoran of the Herman Literary Agency
Kelly, agented by Mary Kole of Andrea Brown Literary Agency
Kristal, in the agent market
Amparo, in the agent market
Lindsay, in the agent market
and then there's me, Katrina, also in the agent market. :-)

*whispers* We have a secret plot to take over the published world.

8-mile Runs, Hills, and Sunburns: My Muse

Mi Papa y Yo

I'm a runner. Did you know? I guess I keep it pretty much to myself. I think I've mentioned it on the blog once or twice before.

It doesn't have anything to do with my writing. Well, except that it's my one source of inspiration that never quits until I do. I have a favorite loop that runs about eight and a half miles around and back home. When I was working on my query for Drats! that's where the hook came from. Later, when I had the chance to pitch to an agent in person, that's where I practiced my pitch.

Yep, out loud. I practiced for 6 or 7 miles, repeating it over and over until my pauses were more for effect than for the fact that I forgot the next line. I went through it by the rhythm of my gait, feet rolling, people staring. It was so worth it. My delivery wasn't perfect, but at least I didn't feel totally unprepared.

Now that I'm working on a new story, I'm using the 8-mile-loop to brainstorm details, plots and subplots, credible motives--all the stuff that evades me as I stare into the white screen of Word. And though it's hard to focus on story when my knees ache and the street swoops upward in a never-ending, gradual climb, this is prime time for my subconscious to seep into my consciousness.

The ideas don't enter in a straight line. It's more like chaos. But my brain stores the chaos in its own way and when I sit here in my computer chair with a word count goal, the story unfolds. It's amazing the details I remember, from crisp leaves chasing me to the color of the ghost in the woods haunting an entire town. The ideas are all there, and they wouldn't be if not for my muse: the noisy quiet of the sidewalk going puth, puth, puth--my own inner metronome manifest on concrete.

If only I could find a way to get these results minus the sunburn. No muse is perfect.