Writers' Wednesday: Two Upcoming Appearances

I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date!....

Two, actually:

Tonight I'm the guest author at the Glen Haven Book Club, for the 3rd year in a row. I'll be discussing my third One Night book, One Night in Napa, with a group that reads select books each summer and then has a discussion in a historic local schoolhouse. Really looking forward to it!

And tomorrow, I'm doing a public reading/signing at the Phillips Free Library in Homer, NY, at 7 pm. Think I'll be talking more generally about my publishing experience, and showing off my e-reader!

Pictures to follow on Friday...

Monday Mentionables: A Nook, Some Books, and a Teenager Arriving Soon...

"I have never been in any country where they did not do something better than we do it, think some thoughts better than we think, catch some inspiration from heights above our own." ~Maria Mitchell

Well, I've spent the weekend playing around with my Nook, and I pretty much love it! It's very easy to use and easy to read on. The screen is well-lit and I especially like the fact that I can change the font size if I need to. It seems like that's one great feature, especially for anyone who reads large print books or just doesn't want to squint at smaller print. I also like the fact that it marks where's I've left off reading (a virtual bookmark, say). Mostly, though, it's really convenient. I can definitely picture myself downloading books to take places to read, instead of lugging around an armful (or bagful) of books.

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Three weeks left of summer vacation - where did it go? And why do I still have so many things on my To-Do list?? 3 of those things are polish my YA/begin submitting to agents; polish my short-sweet work to submit to Samhain's anthology call; and heavily rework Entwined, with the goal of submitting to Samhain. I've started the last one over the weekend and am doing some major work, to both characters and plotline. Right now it seems to be going OK...but boy oh boy is it a lot of work!

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The other thing that's happening in about 3 weeks is that the foreign exchange student we are hosting for the year arrives! Yes, that's right: hubby and I will have a teenager in our house for the next 10 months. She's from Norway, and her name is Hanna. I think (I hope) it will be a great experience for all of us, but YES, there are going to be changes around here!

Will keep you posted...

Friday Fun Facts: Talking About the B&N Nook

"The smallest bookstore still contains more ideas of worth than have been presented in the entire history of television." ~Andrew Ross


Reminder that The Long and the Short of It's 3rd Anniversary Party is going on this whole month, and by participating you can win some great prizes, including a Barnes & Noble Nook eReader!

Speaking of the Nook, I just bought one this week. Very excited! I decided, after 3 years of publishing in the eBook industry, I should really have one so that I could bring it to signings and readings and talk about it.

But which to buy? Of course, there, Amazon's Kindle. There's also the SONY eReader. There's the Nook. And some lesser-well-known ones as well (here's one site that compares them nicely). I made my decision based on a few factors, including reviews, price (the Nook comes in either a $149 Wi-Fi version or a $199 3G Wi-Fi version, which is pretty squarely in the competitive $$ market), and ease of buying/sharing/storing books. If you buy a Kindle, you have to purchase your books from Amazon, in their format. With some of other eReaders, Nook included, you're able to read different formats of eBooks and thus purchase/download from various sites. That, for me, was a big seller. Oh, and the Kindle is "Temporarily Unavailable" until September.

So the Nook it was! I was thrilled because I ordered it around 10 pm on Tuesday night, and it arrived (standard shipping) Thursday around noon. I had it charged, registered with B&N and was playing around with it by that evening.

I'll be back next week with a full user-review!

Writers' Wednesday: Guest Blogging at Samhain Publishing

Hi, everyone! I'm blogging over at Samhain today about the joys of summer and my dream that it might go on forever....

Want to know the details? Please come on over and see me, and maybe leave a comment too!

Monday Mentionables: A New Book Trailer

I'm gearing up for a promo push when Summer's Song releases in print November 1st, and part of that included finally making a trailer for it. I've made trailers for every other book I've written, and a few for fellow authors as well. This time around, though, I found myself going the super-simplistic route, with very few pictures and just straight-forward text. I also included a couple of reviews.

While there's no hard evidence that trailers lead to book sales, it cost me little in materials (less than $20 to download royalty-free music) and only about 2-3 hours in labor. I'll post it on a number of free websites and my author loops, as well as on some low-cost advertising sites I pay for. All in all, if it gets my name in front of a few more people, that's enough for me!

Let me know what you think...

Writers' Wednesday: Win a Nook!

Hey all, The Long and the Short of It Review site is celebrating its 3rd anniversary (which I can't believe, since I remember when Marianne and Judy began it!).

So they're holding a scavenger hunt for the month of August - find the "Nook" graphic on participating authors' sites, and you can win tons of great prizes...a Nook (eBook reader) is the grand prize of all, and they're giving away 3 of them!

Click on the graphic below for more information:

Monday Mentionables: Writing Sweet

I'm off to a remote lake location for a couple of days, which means no Internet, but I'll have my laptop and hope to do some writing. What am I working on now? A "short" work (20K words or so) for submission to Samhain's Just Romance anthology. This is actually the first story of this length that I've written, and it's interesting how it's different from either a true short story at 5K or a full-length novel at 60K+.

Mostly, I like the word count limit. I'm finding that it forces me to stick to a tight storyline and character development, because I have to accomplish a whole story in 1/3 of the space it usually takes me. It's also a challenge, though, getting the characters to fall for each other and have good, honest conflicts as well. Since it's a sweet romance - no sex allowed, which is what I write anyway - there's a whole lot of building up of intimacy and tension.

And speaking of that, I found myself looking up video clips of "The Age of Innocence" - did you ever see that movie? Ah, I loved it. One of the best portrayals of love denied, and the building up of sexual tension is so, so yummy. Here's the trailer:



See you in a couple of days! Fingers crossed that I finish my story in the meantime...

Friday Fun Facts

Fun Fact #1: I finished the second draft of my YA novel this week - up to 60K words, which I'm really pleased with. Still some rough spots, but I'll let it sit for a week or two and then go back and tackle a third revision. Now I'm switching gears and working on a short, sweet-heat submission for Samhain's "Just Romance" anthology.

Fun Fact#2: I just added a reading/Q&A for 7:00 pm on Thursday, August 12th, at the Phillips Free Library in Homer, NY. I'll read from a couple of my books and talk about my experiences getting published. And I'll be selling and signing books, of course!

Fun Fact #3: On this date in 1984, Vanessa Williams resigned as Miss America, after Penthouse said it planned to publish photos of her. Remember that? I do - very controversial. I was somewhat disappointed - not so much in her (she didn't pose while she was reigning as Miss America) but in the fact that she was pressured to step down because of something she'd done in her past.

Have a great weekend!

Writers' Wednesday: Making a Name for Yourself

"Success doesn't come to you; you go to it." Marva Collins

It bears repeating: authors need to market themselves. I don't care whether you're a first-time small press debut author or a NY Times best-seller. You need to spread the word about your books, and you need to interact with the public and reach your readers. Best-selling authors, of course, have a little advantage when it comes to a reliable readership. But even new and small-press authors can reach more people by being VISIBLE.

And why am I talking about this? Last weekend I spent Saturday at a booth at the local craft fair in my childhood hometown. It's my 3rd time participating, and I've always had pretty good sales - yes, because I grew up there and people get a kick out of owning a book by someone they knew when we were both 10. But also because even those who don't know me are fascinated by a hometown-girl-turned-published-author.

This past Saturday, I actually sold out of the books I brought with me - 34 total sales for the day, which is a record for me. Better than that, I got contacts from 3 community members who want me to come to their groups and give readings or talks. Of course I said yes (you should too, even if it makes you nervous!), and I can't wait. Even if you aren't the most outgoing person in the world, if you've published a book, you can get up in front of a group of people and read from it. You can talk about your own experiences getting published

And every time you meet another person, you meet another potential new reader. Many of those new readers become regular readers. You don't ever know...so get out there! Participate in signings, in readings, in craft fairs. You don't have to shout from the rooftops or even peddle your books to every person that walks by. But if you have a chance to set up a booth or a table or appear for a few minutes one night to a local community group, take advantage of it! It's all about growing your name.

Good luck!

Friday Fun Facts

Fun Fact#1: I finally put down Thirteen Reasons Why, a YA novel I was trying so hard to get through. Got halfway and finally gave up. Why? Whiny, unsympathetic main character (and I feel like a schmuck saying that, since she's dead from the start) and unbelievable events that are supposed to make me feel sorry for her. I felt like asking the author, really? You think every teenager doesn't go through all this crap? Talk to some teens or spend time in a high school before writing about what really causes them angst. Sorry. Maybe some of you out there liked it. I just couldn't.

Fun Fact#2: I'm spending tomorrow at the BIG craft fair in my (childhood) hometown, the one where everyone turns out with their extended family and you see people you haven't seen in at least a year, maybe 10 , and you find out all the latest gossip. I love going because I don't live there anymore, so I get to visit with childhood friends. Plus they treat me like a local celebrity, which is kind of nice too.

Fun Fact #3: I opened my royalty statement from Samhain earlier this week to discover that yes indeed, the Kindle Freebie promo that featured my novel One Night in Boston back in May definitely translated into June sales! Very exciting...not only did my sales for that book go up, but for my backlist as well. In fact, I've never seen those kinds of numbers on my royalty statements before, so I did a little jig of glee. I also sent off an email thanking the folks at Samhain for choosing my book as one to feature, since it's not one of the "hot" ones they're known for. One of the marketing staff wrote back and told me my book had the highest number of free downloads of any they featured. So, very cool!

Writers' Wednesday: A Word About Voice

You hear it a lot in the writing world: authors should develop a strong voice. A distinct voice. Their own voice, above all. For some, that's easy. For others, it's a struggle. What is voice, exactly? Simply put, it's a writer's individual style. It how an author uses language to bring to life his/her characters and storyline. While voice can be learned and developed, I also think it's one of those things that is naturally inherent to really brilliant writers.

The voice I'm loving right now is that of YA author John Green. Looking for Alaska is wonderful - if you haven't read it, you should. Paper Towns is also good, though I didn't think the story was as strong. And I'm only partway into Will Grayson, Will Grayson (cowritten with David Levithan). In all 3 books, though, Green's voice is distinct and brilliant enough to make me green with envy. His male first-person protagonists come to life in the very first pages, and he develops all his characters, really, in just a few brush strokes.

A couple of examples:

On the second page of the Prologue of Paper Towns, Quentin describes Margo, his next-door neighbor and earliest crush. Look how at once, we get a sense of who 10-year old Quentin is AND the kind of girl Margo is, as well:

I always got very nervous whenever I heard that Margo was about to show up, on account of how she was the most fantastically gorgeous creature that God had ever created. On the morning in question, she wore white shorts and a pink T-shirt that featured a green dragon breathing a fire of orange glitter. It is difficult to explain how awesome I found this T-shirt at this time.

And from Will Grayson, Will Grayson, on the first page, we get a terrific account of Tiny Cooper, one of the protagonist's closest friends. Again, it takes Green just a paragraph or two to establish who these guys are:

Tiny Cooper is not the world's gayest person, and he is not the world's largest person, but I believe he may be the world's largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world's gayest person who is really, really large. Tiny has been my best friend since fifth grade, except for all last semester, when he was busy discovering the sheer scope of his own gayness, and I was busy having an actual honest-to-God Group of Friends for the first time in my life, who ended up Never Talking to Me Again due to two slight transgressions:

1. After some school-board member got all upset about gays in the locker room, I defended Tiny Cooper's right to be both gigantic (and, therefore, the best member of our shitty football team's offensive line) and gay in a letter to the school newspaper that I, stupidly, signed...

Honestly, any writer, experienced/published or not, would be smart to read and study John Green's style. Great voice. Just great.

Monday

Monday's Mentionables: A Word on Submissions

"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any." ~Orson Scott Card

Happy Monday! Over the weekend, I had a book signing at my local Borders - a little light, since it's a big travel/grad party weekend, but it did give me a chance to chat with my fellow authors that I rarely see, except 2-3x a year at these events. What did I find out?

Samhain is currently taking submissions for a "Springtime Just Romance" anthology (yes I probably should have known this, since they're my publisher, but I hadn't checked their sub page in a while). Interestingly enough, they want "sweet heat" only for this one. This, of course, is great for me, since that's what I write, but interesting for Samhain, since what they're known for, and what they sell, is hot-hot-hot erotic/menage. I guess maybe they're trying to reach out and appeal to a different/wider audience, but I just wonder how successful that will be.

Anyway, the submission info is here. They're looking for stories in the 20-25K range, with a submission deadline of November 1, 2010. So get working, or pull out those stories and polish them up!

*****

And in other interesting submission news (thanks to Kristin Nelson's blog) Tin House Books is requiring all authors submitting unsolicited ms. to include a receipt for a recent bookstore purchase. How great is that?! Apparently they're concerned that many aspiring writers aren't reading as much as they should be - or at all. You can read more about it here...very interesting!

Friday Fun Facts:

First off, for any of my local friends, I'm having a book signing with a few other Samhain authors tomorrow, Saturday the 10th, at the Borders in the Galleria Mall (Middletown, NY), from 2-4 pm. One Night in Napa will be available in print for the first time, so stop down and say hello if you're in the area!


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And now, some photos from my 4th of July weekend in Newport, Rhode Island (if you've never been, I highly recommend it. No photos of the amazing mansions that sit on the cliffs overlooking the harbor, but only because we've visited them before. If you haven't, that's something you can't miss when you're there).

Standing in front of the oldest library in the country

The Cliff Walk, overlooking one of the harbors

Newport Harbor, from our outdoor dinner table on the 4th

Fireworks over Newport Harbor

Writers' Wednesday: Thoughts on Jellicoe Road

Whew! Heat wave here in the Northeast, for about the 4th straight day. It's been at least 100 the last 2 days, though I think it's finally supposed to be a little lower than that today (you know, like 95 or so). Still, that kind of heat and humidity just saps the energy out of me! Actually, over the weekend we traveled to Newport, RI, for a little getaway - beautiful! And right on the water, which tempered the weather a little. It's funny: as I was walking the streets, I thought, huh, maybe One Night in Newport has some potential as a story...all these old homes, narrow winding roads, water and boats and the mansions at night...

But I don't know if I have any more One Night books in my future. We'll see.

I did read Jellicoe Road over the weekend. I got it a while back and had really been looking forward to it, as so many people recommended it as an outstanding Young Adult novel. And I'll tell you: while it was good, it wasn't as good as I was expecting, and I think this is because IT TOOK SO LONG to get moving. I won't even try to explain the plot here, save to say that it's really two storylines, about two groups of friends, set in the same location about 20 years apart. The main character, Taylor Markham, is an angry, self-absorbed 17 year old girl who is thrust into a leader role of a House at the boarding school where she lives. She has to interact with the other House leaders as well as leaders of the other groups of kids in the town, and it goes from there. The only adult she trusts, a woman named Hannah, disappears at the beginning, and all taylor wants to do is find her...which leads to her discovery about this other group of friends and their relation to the school on Jellicoe Road.

The book is 400 pages long, and while much of the second half is compelling, the first half is so deliberately fragmented, with pieces of a mystery and unnamed characters, that it's difficult to decipher. I know this is supposed to be part of the novel's beauty, the way both storylines unfold and come together, but I just didn't care enough about the characters or the school or the "territory wars" they fight with the Townies, at least at first. By the end, however, I cared madly about them, and Taylor's friendship-romance with Jonah Griggs is beautifully developed, one of the best I've read in YA.

By why oh why does it take Melina Marchetta so long to get there? If I were a teen reader, I doubt I would have made it past page 50. And that's a shame, because as I said, the second half of the book really picks up, and the character and story resolutions are beautiful and made me cry.

Anyone else read Jellicoe Road? Thoughts?

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July weekend to all my U.S. readers! It's supposed to be a hot but gorgeous one here in the Northeast. Hubby and I are going away for the weekend with another couple, and I'm still debating whether or not to bring my laptop. Part of me wants to unplug...part of me wants to work on my YA project!

Do me a favor: when you listen to the national anthem, really pay attention to the lyrics. They still give me goosebumps.

I'll see you back here on Monday with some pictures from our weekend...until then, enjoy!

Monday Mentionables: Summer Vacation Begins!!

“Sometimes it pays to stay in bed in Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday's code” ~Dan Saloman

First off, a big congrats to my cyber-writing comrade, Charity, whose YA novel The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading was a winner in the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence Contest! And how do I know this? I was flipping through my latest issue of Romance Writers' Report when I saw the full page announcement of all the winners. I love seeing fellow writers recognized nationally!

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Second, dance of elation because today is the FIRST official summer vacation for Yours Truly! (Well, I mean, school ended last Friday, but I don't count the weekend. Today was the first weekday I didn't have to get up with my alarm clock!)

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Third, I'm making decent progress on my YA novel, tentatively now titled All the Girls. I abandoned the idea of making the heroine psychic, even though I really liked the idea and it's requiring a lot of rewriting to get rid of all those bits. But after some serious thinking, I decided I did want to go more mainstream/contemporary, without the paranormal aspect - even though I know paranormal is still hot-hot-hot!

We'll see...my goal is to finish my second revision this week (a lofty goal, but I'm on page 60 of 114, so it's possible) and to then finish a third revision and send out query letters by the end of July. I really want to see what kind of feedback I get from agents and editors, because I really have no sense if what I'm writing is marketable or not...

OK, I'm off to write and revise. Happy Monday :)

Friday Fun Facts: July/August 2010 Writer's Digest

"You have to really love what you're writing about to write a really good book..." ~Charlaine Harris

Sharing the latest news from Writer's Digest ~ this month's issue focuses on memoir writing, which isn't really my thing, but they always have some interesting articles for all writers. Among them:

"Based on a True Story" recounts one writer's chance encounter with James Frey, the infamous author of A Million Little Pieces who was lambasted by Oprah for fabricating large parts of his memoir. Many people called him a fraud, among other things, but the author of this article doesn't feel that way at all. She argues instead that all memoirists fabricate to a certain extent, because they are writers telling a story. (By the way, I don't agree with her. Because Frey couldn't sell his story as a novel, he marketed it as a memoir, which in my mind suggests much more "truth" than a novel does. If all of us seeking the elusive contract simply lied to get it, where's the integrity? But I digress...)

"Emerging as a Writer" talks about the value of MFA creative writing programs. While they require absolute devotion of huge amounts of time and energy (and money too, I'd guess, though the article doesn't mention that), they're also greatly rewarding. They allow you to surround yourself with fellow writers and delve really deeply into your own strengths and weaknesses. Not sure I'd ever go through with getting my MFA, but I wouldn't mind taking a class or two.

"In Her Blood" discusses the tremendous success of author Charlaine Harris, who writes the Sookie Stackhouse series (basis for the TV show "True Blood"). I've read some of her books and really liked them, even though I'm not a big vampire fan. Interesting to find out that she took exactly one creative writing class in her life and also that she spent many years writing "cozy mysteries" before she broke out of her own mold and tackled paranormal. And while she definitely credits the vampire/paranormal trend with boosting her own success, she also says giving herself the freedom to do something different, something she really wanted to try, added to it as well.

There's also an article called "Raising the Stakes" that I haven't looked at yet, about adding tension/stakes to your story. Definitely looking forward to that one!

Thanks again to the editors of Writer's Digest for producing another helpful issue!

Writers' Wednesday: Two Nice Reviews

“Be happy. It's one way of being wise.” ~ Sidonie Gabrielle

I love the casual reviews I get from readers every now and again. The other day on one online forum I frequent, a fellow author wrote "Woo hoo - those "One Night" books are a hoot! I love them - didn't realize they were yours, Allie!" (I'm not exactly sure what she means by a "hoot" since they're love stories, but it sounds like a positive response).

And then last night I received this lovely email from one of the women at the Ladies' Literary Society, where I spoke a couple of weeks ago:

"I finished your latest book last evening and it is THE BEST YET! I really enjoy your writing and spoiler here so I deleted it... The happy ending really gave me a lift after an extremely stressful day. Thank you!"

They both made my day :)

Monday Mentionables: Win a SONY eReader!

Hey all, yesterday was my day as featured author over at Tilly's Greene's blog, and every comment during this ENTIRE month enters you to win a SONY eReader...so hop on over, read, and comment if you'd like! (I have to admit: reading comments from people I don't know, who've read and enjoyed my other books, is still such a thrill :)

*****

I'm pleased to say that we have found homes for all 6 kittens that have been growing up in and around our garage these last few weeks! Can't believe how big they've gotten: check out these pictures!

Stretched out in a flowerbox (apparently the towel-lined boxes weren't good enough. or dirty enough)

Sometimes, flowerpots are even preferable to flower boxes...

And even better with a friend

Of course, exploring the world outside is nice too...