Addicted to Words is Getting a New Name!!!!

I've been doing a lot of soul searching, blog soul searching, that is. And I've come to the conclusion that ADDICTED TO WORDS is a little stale. I've decided it's time to take this blog to the next level. 

But don't worry. I'll still be keeping my posts real and authentic. I won't commercialize or sell-out. 

First, let me introduce my new and improved blog, and my new bloggy name..

 Welcome to

The Teenybooker

I hope you like it here. It feels "write" to me and that's how I roll around here, so make yourself at home and let's get to it. 

 

The Writer’s Maze: What a Zoo!

Hi Ho to all of you monkeys hangin' around this zoo!

If you’re here, you’re probably a writer and you know exactly what I’m talking about (or very lost and wondering what the hell is going on). 

Last week the family and I went to the zoo and it got me thinking that each of the beasts, those wild animals held captive in their domestic prisons, is like a writer. 

The writer longs to be free of the chains and enclosures caging us in (don’t miss The Writer’s Maze: WiPs and Chains). We want to be free, to run untamed through the jungle of publishing rules and laws, a.k.a. THE WRITER’S MAZE! But like the zoo, though it is beautiful and orderly to look at, the rules of writing try to control and tame the writer’s heart. 

Yes, there should be boundaries and standards of acceptable writing, but when and how can we writers escape the confines of these laws and get away with it? Let’s look at The Road a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Cormac McCarthy. 

McCarthy is a lion of the writing jungle. He dared to ignore almost every writing law in existence and he got away with it. For those of you who’ve read The Road you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s choppy, it’s grammatically incorrect to the extreme, heck he doesn’t even use punctuation. Many people have pondered why he wrote the novel this way, was it to add to the discomfort the characters were feeling? It certainly made me uncomfortable reading it.

Does that mean we, as writers, can follow in McCarthy’s footsteps and get published? Win a Pulitzer? Maybe. What I mean is, are we a lion like McCarthy? I know I’m not. I’m more like this guy…

 

...not the cutest bird in the world, but my song is sweet.

I’m exotic, yes. I’m different, I’ll give you that. But I only vaguely resemble the rest of my writer species. My writing is more like a bird on a wire than a lion on the prowl. If I tried to break all of the rules McCarthy did it wouldn’t work for me. I couldn’t even live in the same enclosure with a lion let alone try to be one.

That’s why we need the zoo and the zoo keepers. The zoo, rules of good writing, maintains the standard. However, what the zoo cannot do is determine how and why a certain literary work has the IT factor. Now, the zoo keepers, the editors, agents and publishers, remind us daily that even though we must conform to their rules and live with our own kind, they still want us to remember that we are wild.

Now, you might be the type of writer who thinks, eh, writing is easy. Any monkey can do it…if they follow the rules. And though that might be true, it doesn’t mean any monkey can climb to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list. 

The zoo works because of the regulations and environments it provides for the wellbeing of the public, but if we animals (i.e. writers) were to become too complacent and docile no one would want to visit us. The zoo is the best of both worlds. It is a collaboration of dangerous predators and the sweet songs of the canaries presented together in a picturesque and stimulating setting (i.e. books). 

After all, that is the goal, yes? To see our writing tamed and corralled along the shelves of many, many bookstores? I know that’s my goal. Like my fat, long-beaked bird, I pick and gather the twigs and moss of literary dos and don’ts, trying to force my natural tendencies to conform. At times I do still feel as though my wings are clipped, but for the most part I’ve learned to fly up one branch at time.

Maybe one day, the monkeys will be trying to catch us birds. 

Blog About Kickass Worth-Your-Time Blogs

UncommonYA

A great blog by a fierce collection of kickass YA authors. They're all superchics. Bookmark it. You won't be sorry. Unless you don't...and then you'll be all like, "Ah, I wish I would've followed that link to UncommonYA on Addicted to Words. But I didn't and now I'm nothing. Nothing!" Okay, so it won't be as bad as all that. But it's definitely going to suck. So, do it! Click!

YA Bound

Is the place to be if you want boundless YA books to devour. No page left unturned here. From author interviews and book reviews to dressing up like your favorite literature, this blog's got it all! Make sure you give it a wink and nod and tell 'em Addicted to Words sent you.

The Midnight Garden

Can everyone say, "Oooh! Aaaah!" This blog is so pretty I want to curl up inside it and bask in its glorious-ness (beware, I make up words). Fantastically fun and fulfilling, you'll fall hopelessly in love, just as I have, with the reviews and giveways.

KelsNotChels Not Live

One word. Funny! Kels cracks me the eff up! She's got some straight forward and valid advice for pre-published authors like us, and she's funny too. I met this gal at Dallas Fort Worth Writer's Conference 2014 but I've followed her vlog for years longer. She's awesome. Go see for yourself. 



All righty, gibber typers. That's it for today. Know a fantastic YA-ish blog? Leave a link in the comments and I'll check it out. <3

Cover Reveal BECOMING JOSEPHINE by Heather Webb

  BECOMING JOSEPHINE

by Heather Webb

BECOMING JOSEPHINE is Heather Webb’s debut historical about Napoleon’s empress, a woman in search of eternal love and stability, and ultimately her search for self. It releases December 31, 2013 from Plume/Penguin. Stop by her blog BetweentheSheets  and leave a comment for a chance to win a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble or a $20 gift card to Amazon. Pre-order her novel (present a receipt) and win a Josephine hand mirror with a velvet bag.

PRE-ORDER 

 Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, or Amazon

ABOUT THE BOOK 

Rose Tascher sails from her Martinique plantation to Paris to trade her Creole black magic culture for love and adventure. She arrives exultant to follow her dreams of attending Court with Alexandre, her elegant aristocrat and soldier husband. But Alexandre dashes her hopes and abandons her amid the tumult of the French Revolution. 

Through her savoir faire, Rose secures her footing in high society, reveling in handsome men and glitzy balls—until the heads of her friends begin to roll. 

After narrowly escaping death in the blood-drenched cells of Les Carmes prison, she reinvents herself as Josephine, a socialite of status and power. Yet her youth is fading, and Josephine must choose between a precarious independence and the love of an awkward suitor. Little does she know, he would become the most powerful man of his century- Napoleon Bonaparte. 

BECOMING JOSEPHINE is a novel of one woman’s journey to find eternal love and stability, and ultimately to find herself.

ADVANCE PRAISE

Becoming Josephine has already been featured in a Wall Street Journal piece on the popularity of historical fiction featuring the wives of famous men.

“Heather Webb’s epic novel captivates from its opening in a turbulent plantation society in the Caribbean, to the dramatic rise of one of France’s most fascinating women: Josephine Bonaparte. Perfectly balancing history and story, character and setting, detail and pathos, Becoming Josephine marks a debut as bewitching as its protagonist." –Erika Robuck, author of Hemingway's Girl

“With vivid characters and rich historical detail, Heather Webb has portrayed in Josephine a true heroine of great heart, admirable strength, and inspiring courage whose quest is that of women everywhere: to find, and claim, oneself.”  --Sherry Jones, bestselling author of The Jewel of the Medina

“Josephine's warmth and complexity comes to vibrant life in this fascinating novel rich with vivid historical detail."—Teresa Grant, Author of THE PARIS AFFAIR

"Vivid and passionate, Becoming Josephine captures the fiery spirit of the woman who stole Napoleon’s heart and enchanted an empire. –Susan Spann, author of The Shinobi Mysteries

“A fast-paced, riveting journey, Becoming Josephine captures the volatile mood of one of the most intense periods of history—libertine France, Caribbean slave revolts, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars—from the point of a view of one of its key witnesses, Josephine Bonaparte.” –Dana Gynther, author of Crossing on the Paris

“Spellbinding . . . Heather Webb’s novel takes us behind the mask of the Josephine we thought we knew.” –Christy English, author of How to Tame a Willful Wife and To Be Queen

“Enchanting prose takes the reader on an unforgettable journey . . . Captivating young Rose springs from the lush beauty of her family's sugar plantation in Martinique to shine in the eighteenth century elegance of Parisian salon society. When France is torn by revolution, not even the blood-bathed terror of imprisonment can break her spirit.” –Marci Jefferson, author of Girl on the Gold Coin, Thomas Dunne Books, 2014

Where’s the Love? Blog Hop

I know I haven't blogged in forever and a day. Personal drama and revisions have kept me away and I'm so sorry. But I think Valentine's Day is the perfect time to get back in the blog saddle and spread a little romance...

Between the Sheets is hosting a steamy blog hop to heat you up and leave you begging for more.



Here's a scene from my YA SF Romance, SEEK...

He takes my face in his hands. His mouth crushes mine. I’m hypnotized by his heat, his roving lips. Everywhere is Jonathan. Everything is Jonathan. Only joy, need and want.

 My hands grope him as if independent from my brain. They roam over the tight muscles in his neck, the smooth skin of his chest, the line of baby-fine hair that runs vertically down from his waist. My fingers bump the waistband of his jeans and I hesitate, temporarily distracted by high school memories of girls bragging about lewd things they’d done with random boys at parties. 

 I am not those girls. This is Jonathan and we’re in love. We’re not using each other for temporary gratification, so I take a shaky breath and forge on. His heart hammers as I hastily fumble with his zipper. 

His hand closes hard over mine. “Keira,” he breathes in my hair, “I don’t want to…” 

 I don’t wait to hear the rest. “Oh,” I gasp, jerking my hands away.

“You didn’t let me finish.” His hand is on my cheek again. “I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable,” he says, sweetly nudging my chin. 

“I’m not uncomfortable. I’m excited. There’s a difference.” Great, I sound like a child and I hate my voice for betraying me.

“You’re trembling,” he says holding my unsteady hand out as proof.

I try a different approach, one that involves me sounding as though I’ve asked this before. “Do you have protection?”

Be sure to check out the rest of the sizzling blog list on Between the Sheets