It's My Birthday and I'll Blog if I Want to

Hi y'all! I can't tell you how happy I am with the name change!

Whew! What a refreshing new view it is.

But enough about that. Let's talk writing. You remember my last post, Hello World, where I confessed to not writing for a year because of really stupid fears and insecurities? And how I promised I was writing  Evade (SEEK Book 2) again?

Search (SEEK Book 1)

Well, wow! I wasn't lying. When I wrote that post a month ago I had just begun [my ninth attempt at] writing [it] and I had maybe six thousand words (not much). Well...I finished my rough draft a week ago at fifty-eight thousand words.

I kicked NaNoWriMo's ass!!!!!!

Fastest I've ever written and I'm not a slow writer (when I know what the hell I want to say!).

I'm just beginning the second week of my two-week break from the manuscript (If you don't do this, you should! I highly recommend everyone walk away from their book between each revision.), but I am so excited to get back to it. It's like my brain was writing all along and it's just busting with all of the things I wouldn't let it say.



Sorry brain.

So, next Sunday I'm going to begin the revision process -- YIKES, wish me luck, that first glimpse of slop can be terrifyingly intimidating -- and I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Coming up: I'm writing another The Writer's Maze post about my recent triumphant return to writing.

Until then, lot's of love and smiles. Keep writing!

The Teenybooker

A Snippet on Book Reviews

 

I'm honored and thrilled to announce that Search (SEEK book 1) has received the LitPick Top Choice Book Review Award! That is so amazing, I can't even tell you how humbled and grateful it makes me feel to have these amazing teens enjoy my work.

It also makes me want to write the next three books in the series even better. So, I'm sorry if my normal blogging might be taking a back burner at the moment, but rest assured I'm still here and you're welcome to reach out to me at any time. I love hearing from you and the private messages are the most wonderful surprises, keep them coming. I really enjoy connecting with you. Thank you.

If you'd like to read some of the amazing reviews Search (SEEK book 1) is getting click here.  

Search (SEEK book 1) is available now in eBook format and print copies will be available June 1st 2016. Here's a sneak peek at the full cover! Isn't it awesome? Squeeee!

 I love it so much, here's a horrible screenshot of me holding it.

Writer's Maze: I Wrote a Book--Now What? And a Giveaway!

What do you do once you've realized your dream and published a book? You sell it, of course!

Go. Now. Buy my book. And tell all of your friends to buy my book.

Share the crap out of my link.

Share it everywhere EVERYWHERE! 

Thank you for your support and encouragement. And thank you for your patience as I write the rest of the SEEK Saga.

Anticipated Release Dates:

Evade (SEEK #2) November 2016

Extract (SEEK #3) May 2017

Kill (SEEK #4) November 2017

As of today, I'm right on schedule and anticipate no problems during production.

Click the picture for the link to Search (SEEK #1).

SEEK

Out of seven billion people, there’s only one thing we all have in common.

We search for what eludes us.

We evade what causes us sorrow.

We extract what doesn’t suit our needs.

And we kill to get what we want.

WE SEEK.

In the time it takes you to read this, two lives will be revoked and one spared. Some call it divine intervention, others say natural selection decides, but no one really knows for sure.

EXCEPT ME.

My name is Keira, and this is how I saved you.

Seventeen-year-old SEEK agent Keira Donavan knows her job—Search, Evade, Extract, and Kill the Khayal, but when she encounters Jonathan Steed, her green-eyed fast-talking human target she learns her life is a bitter lie. With a bounty on her head and her family held captive, the huntress becomes the hunted. Now Keira must choose, save her family or band together with Jonathan and his crusade of unlikely misfits to prevent the extermination of an ancient mystical race. In the end, no one is safe, not even her heart.

Tweet, Follow and Enter My Amazon eBook Giveaway:

 

#‎AmazonGiveaway‬ : Search (SEEK Book 1) (Kindle Edition). NoPurchNec: https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/096163e504ac2940/… … ‪#‎yalit‬ ‪#‎giveaway‬ ‪#‎scifi‬

 

 

Writer's Maze: A Toast to the Editor

In every author’s life there are always people who help us become the writer we are. Those people deserve our utmost gratitude. And among this group of encouragers there is most likely also one person who stands out in the crowd. A person who made the difference in your decision to become a writer, or not. A person, who perhaps pushed you over a hump and made you try—or try again. A person whose encouragement was so valuable that you might not even be a writer at all if not for them.

For me, that person was the Editor in chief at a small newspaper I was working at. 

But let me backup. 

All my life I’d wanted to be a writer, I wrote for pleasure and I wrote stories for my children, but I never wrote anything anyone could see.

In a way, I think my late father had a hand in the way fate changed my life, because so many things happened all at once I don’t really even understand to this day how I got here. 

This is how it happened.

I lived in Portland, OR. I worked part time at an upscale salon downtown. I taught cosmetology part time at a college and I went to school fulltime. Majored in Fine Arts. Why? Because I didn’t believe I could be a writer due to my dyslexia – I’d let my disability become my excuse instead of my reason – so I was going to be an illustrator instead, dammit. Luckily, my mother was an artist and my father dabbled in art, so I had just enough residual talent to fake it. 

Then my father died. And this is where my life takes a huge detour. I packed up and moved to a beautiful small town in Oregon to take care of my grieving mother. I got a job at the nicest salon in town, bought a cool house and let my dream of becoming an illustrator go. With no colleges to continue my degree, I was okay with accepting a simple life in my new friendly town. 

Fate had other plans once again. 

Four months later, once I was happily settled in and making friends, I was in a car accident. My neck was so messed up that I couldn’t work in the salon for close to a year. But I needed to work so I took a fulltime job at a local jewelers and a part-time job at the local paper selling advertising. I really enjoyed the challenge of creating the ads and helping people acquire more business. Plus, I got to walk around downtown (all 8 blocks) visiting with people. 

But soon, I needed something more so I enrolled in online college. And here is where my most important person comes in. Debby (I’ll give you her details later), my Editor in chief, asked if I’d like to write a column about the happenings going on downtown. A friendly gossip column of sorts. I desperately wanted to say yes, but I was nervous my spelling and grammar were not up to “publishing” standards.

“Don’t worry,” Debby said. “I’ll edit it first. I won’t put anything out there that isn’t ready.”

My whole world shifted. One column at a time. 

Shout out to Debbie Ohi! I've met her a couple of times at various writer's conferences and she is FABULOUS! 

 

Each week I’d get to do exactly what I’m doing right now, talk about nothing but gibberish. And people liked it. The locals would actually make it a point to tell me how much they enjoyed the column. 

No one was laughing at me. At least not to my face.

My mother was in shock. I don’t think she ever dreamed that I could read, much less write. Remember she’d watched me struggle all my life. She’d gotten my cards and letters over the years—chicken scratched and littered with errors because I couldn’t write to save myself.

But it turns out all I needed was to type— and type a lot. Debby gave me just that chance when she asked me if I wanted to start covering some news also. Let me tell you, you haven’t truly written until you’ve covered a City Council meeting. Ha! I joke. 

It was about a year later that I was standing outside on my back porch, waiting for my dog to do her business, that the universe revealed its ultimate plan for me. It was like a voice, somewhere in my own mind, yet not my usual monologue voice. This voice was important and it made me pay attention. 

It said, “You’ve always wanted to be writer. To write books. In five years, will you still feel the same?”

“Yes,” I answered back, looking to the clouds rushing across the sky.

“And in ten years, twenty years, will you still wish you had written a book?”

“Yes, yes.”

I walked around in a daze that day. And that night I dreamt the end. Not the end of my life but the end of a story I’d been writing in my head for as long as I could remember.

The next morning, I woke up before the sun and began to write. 

That was seven years ago this month. 

Seven happy years spent hammering words onto paper. Seven hard years trying to figure it all out. And seven years of learning who it was I really wanted to be.

So I raise a virtual glass of champagne. “To Debby! Thanks for changing my life. You made me believe I could.”

To find out more about Debby Schoeningh, a witty and talented writer, go to:

Want to know more about Debby's books?

At Books-a-Million

On Amazon

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 Have a mentor you'd like to give a shout-out to? Leave their link below (NO SPAMMERS! I'll delete you!) so we can check them out.

AUTHOR ADDICTION with LJ Cohen Author of Derelict and Ithaka Rising

Please welcome author of Derelict and Ithaka Rising, Miss LJ Cohen!

Lisa Janice (LJ) Cohen is a poet, novelist, blogger, local food enthusiast, Doctor Who fan, and relentless optimist. Lisa lives just outside of Boston with her family, two dogs (only one of which actually ever listens to her) and the occasional international student. When not doing battle with a stubborn Jack Russell Terrier mix, Lisa can be found writing, which looks a lot like daydreaming. She writes SF, Fantasy, and YA novels under the name LJ Cohen.

LJ has published books of poetry, anthologies with other authors and five novels:

Derelict: Halcyone Space, book 1

Ithaka Rising: Halcyone Space, book 2

The Between (Changeling's Choice Book 1)

Time and Tithe (Changeling's Choice Book 2)

Future Tense

Pen-Ultimate: A Speculative Fiction Anthology

Stranger Worlds Than These: Short Stories

Poets Gone Wild

Thank you LJ for joining us here at ADDICTED TO WORDS we’re so happy to have you.

Of your work:

Of your five novels, who is your favorite fictional character and why?

I’ve always struggled with ‘favorite’ questions – even ones that should be as simple as what’s my favorite iced cream flavor! Aargh! If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be Aeon from the Changeling’s Choice books (The Between and Time and Tithe) Why? Because he wasn’t even supposed to be in these stories. He wasn’t in my initial planning for The Between at all; he simply showed up one day as I was writing. I still remember it clearly, even though it was in 2009! I had been writing a scene from early on in the story where my main character, Lydia, has chosen to return to Faerie. She is utterly confused by the politics and what she needs to do to survive, so she goes for a run to clear her head, only to get lost in a bewitched maze.  Stopping to reflect, she wonders who she has become and doesn’t realize she’s spoken aloud until a voice answers her.

That was Aeon, though at the time, I had no idea who was in the maze with her and why. Figuring out his connection to the story was a joy and creating a ‘trickster’ character made the story so much more interesting than it might have been. Furthermore, writing his dialogue was always fun, since he essentially had no ‘filters’.

Which of your books was your favorite to write?

Another ‘favorites’ question! Probably whatever book I’m currently writing. I’m a serial monogamist when it comes to my writing. I think I need to be totally in love with each project as I’m drafting it.

What is one of your characters most treasured possessions?

Matt Garrison from Future Tense is a 17 year old who has been in foster care since he was five. He saved up money from odd jobs until he was able to buy a basic used iPod. It’s the one thing he’s possessive of.

Which of your fictional characters do you love to hate and why?

I think the character who is the most irredeemable in all my stories is Alain Maldonado, Ro Maldonado’s (one of the main protagonists in the Halcyone Space series) father. I struggled to keep him from being a ‘mustache twirling’ bad guy even as he did reprehensible things in the story. I am almost ashamed to admit it was fun writing his scenes – it’s not often (ever?) I get the chance to act out utter, brutal self-interest in my day-to-day life!

If you could choose to be a character in one of your books, who would it be?

Wow – that’s a hard one. I put my characters through so much! I’m not sure I’d want to be in their positions. I’m probably more like Nomi Nakamura from the Halcyone Space books than any of my other characters. She’s pretty level headed and caring and while she doesn’t have the primary adventures, she is the emotional heart of the story, in many ways. That’s not such a bad thing to be.

How do you choose your character’s names? Which is your favorite?

I struggle with names. They have to feel right in relation to the setting of a novel and with all the other names. They also need to sound right. I page through baby name websites and look for names whose meaning reflect something in the character, or are from a particular culture, time and place. My favorite character name may be one that’s from a co-writing project I’m still in the planning stages of: Vito Nonce. He’s a Philadelphia-based hit man who was infected with a virus that renders him unremarkable and unable to be remembered. I like the play on words with the expression ‘for the nonce’ which means for right now, or for the present use.  

Where do you get your greatest ideas for writing?

I’m pretty much a magpie when it comes to ideas. Shiny, shiny ideas are everywhere. NPR is a great incubator of ideas, as are overheard conversations. I keep a ‘plot bunny’ folder where I write down scraps of ideas. Some make it into stories, others have not yet.

Of other authors:

Which book have you read the most in your lifetime? Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time

What is your favorite fictional journey? The trip to Mount Doom with Sam and Frodo from The Lord of the Rings

Which fictional character would you most like to be friends with? I’m going to cheat here and pick a character from a TV show: Sarah Jane Smith from Doctor Who.

What qualities do you most admire in an author? Perseverance, respectfulness, and creativity.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors? Develop your ability to listen to feedback, but to objectively assess it before blindly making changes. Develop a work ethic and work flow that doesn’t require waiting for inspiration or specific circumstances.

What are your top 5 books?

Some old favorites:

The Riddle Master Trilogy by Patricia McKillip. (Fantasy) Amazing, original world building, characters that still manage to make me cry, and drop-dead beautiful prose.

Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. (SF) I re-read this book every few years and it stuns me just how prescient it feels in the way it depicts our internet-centric way of life. Biting social commentary wrapped in a future with an increasingly mobile and unrooted society with characters who are willing to risk everything to help chance it.

The Time Traveller’s Wife by  Audrey Niffenegger. Not a genre book, per se, but one that uses time travel (and in an inventive way) as a metaphor for staying in relationship with someone. Also beautiful prose.

Some more recent reads that are on my favorite lists:

The Minus Faction – a serial novel by Rick Wayne. (SF/thriller/??) I’m pretty much salivating to get my hands on episode 4 after tearing my way through episodes 1-3. A different take on superheroes with a thriller/conspiracy story-line and characters that feel fully realized, fully human, despite the fantastical elements of their abilities.  Great action, crisp writing, genre twisting goodness that is a roller coaster ride.

Crooks and Straights by Masha du Toit. (Magical realism/fantasy) I just finished this book a few weeks ago and now I want everyone I know to read it. I describe it as A Wrinkle in Time meets Pan’s Labyrinth. An original take on a ‘magical creatures live in our world story’ for many reasons – first and foremost in that it takes place in South Africa and is not a rehashing of European mythology. (The author is from SA). It is beautifully written and beautifully illustrated by the author. I kept having to stop reading for fear of what was going to happen next. It’s that painfully beautiful.  

Of life and passion:

Besides being a beautiful poet and gifted author you’re also fantastic potter (I know this because I have the absolute best wonky Viking mug ever! Thank you!) How did you begin throwing pottery and does it correlate or contribute to your creativity as an author?

Thank you! I never, ever considered myself the least bit artistic growing up. Other than art class in elementary school, I never pursued drawing, painting, and the like. When my now college aged son was in middle school, he had wanted to sign up for a parent/teen ceramics class at a nearby studio, so I tagged along as his ‘plus one’. After that class, he got busy with his music and no longer had time for ceramics, but I had found that I really enjoyed it and kept taking classes. That was more than 7 years ago.

I find it a great counterpoint to the life of a writer. I spend so much time in my own thinking brain, that it’s a joy to spend time kinesthetically engaged in working with clay. It’s a very zen kind of task – first it takes your full attention. If the potter is not centered, neither will the clay be centered. Second, it is an immersive sensory experience where words aren’t the focus. And it’s taught me a lot about taking artistic risks, letting go of expectations, and impermanence. Plus it gives me a great excuse to give fun pieces to my writing friends! :)

May we see some of your latest pieces?

Thank you, LJ for joining us here at ADDICTED TO WORDS and sharing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into your literary addiction, we’ve loved having you!

Find LJ Cohen: 

Amazon

Homepage

Newsletter

Facebook

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Google+ 

Twitter: @lisajanicecohen

email LJ: lisa@ljcohen.net

Blog: Once in a Blue Muse

Digging up The Dead: The Tale of The Manuscript That Wouldn’t Die

You know those old manuscripts you have lying around? The ones that you wrote when you first started writing and you didn’t really know what you were doing? The manuscripts you’re supposed to stash away in some imaginary drawer (because, let’s face it, nobody writes on paper anymore), and pull out years down the road, after you’ve found success and have oodles of books in all major bookstores?

Yeah, that’s the one.

Have you ever considered rewriting/editing/revising one? Or maybe you’ve already done it?

I have a question for you, “Did it work?”

The reason I ask, is because I am not “a success,” at least not yet. I am still a floundering author who’s just doing her time writing and writing and writing etc… etc… etc…

I work hard at it. I write daily. I read everything, including how-to books. I’m finishing my English degree in creative writing (12 more credits woo-hoo-hoo!) and I’m preparing to begin my Masters program next spring. And I have the most awesome writing group (Love to my SFWG sisters!!!), no seriously, they are the best. 

With all of that writing I’ve accumulated close to fifty stories, all of which have great potential to become books. They have strong premises, vivid settings, and solid plots, but none of them move my pulse the way one of my very first stories did (a series of four books). 

I tried and tried to rewrite this old tale and though I had requests from editors and agents, all returned with polite rejections or revise and resubmit notes, I still couldn’t get these stories where they needed to be. Instead I buried them. Every dear character I loved so much, I just shoved down to the depths of my “writing” folder and just kept on writing. I haven’t touched them or looked at them for more than a year. 

Since then, I’ve written three other full manuscripts, all in various stages of rewriting disaster, and a few dozen more short stories (many have novel potential), but through each new manuscript came the cries of my ghostly protagonist from her lonesome, word-doc grave. “Don’t leave me, Candie. I’ll haunt you forever if you do,” she moans. 

I kept telling her, “There’s no hope for you. I can’t save you. You’re dead, so die already!”

But she won’t listen. 

And then, one day not long ago, I happened on an amazing photographer, Chris of CJC Photography, on Facebook and we got to chatting. He suggested I take a look at his portfolio to see if any of his photos might be a good match for one of my works. 

Just look at how delicious his works are...

   

Well surprise, surprise and who do you think I saw staring back at me? That’s right, my dead and buried protagonist. Only she wasn’t dead, she was very much alive and glaring at me with her willful eyes. I was mesmerized, caught under her spell and I couldn’t turn away. And when I finally did, I found even more pictures, pictures of her with her heartthrob hottie, pictures of her in her native world, and pictures of her with the sister (whom I also love!) she's trying to save. Four perfect pictures for four very-not-perfect manuscripts. 

It was a battle I couldn’t win. My protagonist would not let me walk away. And in that short little time span of maybe an hour, chatting with Chris and going over price and rights etc… I walked away (wallet considerably lighter) the proud owner of four amazing cover photos and a new plan.

See, my original idea for this series was to seek traditional publishing, and that actually encumbered me and my storytelling abilities. Because I knew, thanks to many knowledgeable friends, that in order for my series to be marketable and to acquire agent representation that these books had to have certain qualities and they had to be in a definite “hot right now” sub-genre. 

But I can’t work like that. I’ve learned that about myself. I can’t write (okay, I can but I don’t like to) what everyone else is writing this minute. In fact, I try really hard to write new and fresh stories (impossible, I know) but somehow every time I’m working on something it suddenly becomes a popular topic (Does this happen to you? WTF?). The only exception has been this one series. It has never been a mainstream subject (I’m pretty sure, at least not in my lifetime), and it’s had its claws in me for so long I have scars. 

How could I walk away?

As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now (from all of this rambling, maybe?), I have decided to dig it up and revive my old dusty four-part story and… wait for it… self-publish it. 

Ta-da!

I know some of you might say, “That’s a bad idea. Just move on and write something new.” 

I’ve tried that remember. I have plenty of manuscripts I could be revising, polishing and sending out with laborsome queries, but this story won’t die. 

And besides, my friends, family, critique partners (who suffered through many rounds of revision madness with me), and beta readers are all saying, “Do it! Publish it!” 

And so, without further ado, I’m going to revise, edit and clean it the heck up (and OH what a mess it is!). Then I’m going to publish my gloriously chaotic series my way, the way I’ve always seen the story, messy and gritty, lovely and untainted, all of it, as it should be.

I have to let my girl have her day in the sun. She deserves to shine, even if it’s only for me. 

“So rise, my obnoxiously-loud dead protagonist, wake from your slumber and go be the awesome badass I always meant you to be!”

Now, you'll have to wait for my cover reveal to see my amazing photos, and I'll let you know when I get close to publishing what my title and release date are, but until then...

Have you self published? I’d love to hear from you, please talk to me! Tell me it’s all going to be okay. 

Or if you’re like me and have a story that wouldn’t die, I’d also love to know your experience, did it work? Are you still working on it? Or are you in corner talking to imaginary unicorns?

Ah! Either way, even if I go mad, I’m publishing this blasted thing. But it would sure be nice to have some company along the way. 

Find me on Twitter and Facebook – let’s talk!