So this is an old post, but I feel like sharing it again. It might even become an annual thing. Enjoy!The annual Kentucky Rolex Three Day Event is happening right now in Lexington. It’s four days of the toughest, scariest horseback riding in the United States. But these horses and riders face jump like this:

And this:

 

Without fear. With the determination that they will get over and move on to the next.

So today, me and a whole bunch of other fabulous people on the blogosphere are all celebrating the release of Unraveling by the lovely and talented debut author Elizabeth Norris. I’m so excited for this book, guys! You can read about it below and enter a chance to win one of two copies.

But first, I’ve chosen this prompt to write about in celebration:

“In her blurb for Unraveling, Andrea Cremer describes it as Veronica Mars meets X-Files. Who are your favorite fictional sleuths?”

This one is soooooo easy (although that’s not the reason I chose it, I swear). But my favorite fictional sleuth of all time is Veronica Mars. I just love her. Love, love, love. She’s tough, smart, clever, and best of all – a girl. Don’t get me wrong. I love a whole bunch of male sleuths (Sherlock, Magnum, Angel, Vic Mackey, Castle) but a female sleuth and a teenager to boot is always going to win out in my book.

Now, there’s no way for me to capture the awesomeness that is Veronica Mars in a post like this. You need to just go out and watch it and you’ll understand. But in case you’re looking for a quick glance into some of the fun, I leave you with this link (beware of spoilers, on and make sure you read about Unraveling AND enter the contest before getting lost in the wonderment of VM).

About Unraveling:

Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed-as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she’s opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn’t possible, she knows-with every fiber of her being-that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.

But her revival, and Ben’s possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI agent father’s files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something-but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what’s right in front of her: Everything that’s happened-the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben’s sudden appearance in her life-points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she’s going to need to uncover Ben’s secrets-and keep from falling in love with him in the process.

From debut author Elizabeth Norris comes this shattering novel of one girl’s fight to save herself, her world, and the boy she never saw coming.

You can read the first 90 pages of UNRAVELING here.

About the author:

Elizabeth Norris briefly taught high school English and history before trading the southern California beaches and sunshine for Manhattan’s recent snowpocalyptic winter.

She harbors dangerous addictions to guacamole, red velvet cupcakes, sushi, and Argo Tea, fortunately not all together.

Her first novel, UNRAVELING (Balzer+Bray, April 2012), is the story of one girl’s fight to save her family, her world, and the one boy she never saw coming.

The giveaway:

Fill in the giveaway form for a chance to win one of two copies of UNRAVELING. Open anywhere the Book Depository will ship.

So I got tagged for this by my brilliant critique partner and agency sister, Lori M. Lee. Thanks Lori!

The Lucky 7 Meme Rules

• Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP
• Go to line 7
• Copy down the next 7 lines–sentences or paragraphs–and post them as they’re written. No cheating.
• Tag 7 authors
• Let them know

Here it goes. The following is from the current version of The Nightmare Affair

*************************************************************************************************

I alighted onto the field behind a hulking player I recognized as Brian Johnson. Seeing him brought back memories of the first time I ever dream-walked. Not particularly good ones. Nobody thought I’d inherited any Nightmare powers until I woke up one night feeling a hunger no Snickers bar could satisfy. Half-dazed, half-terrified I broke into Brian’s house, climbed on top of him, and found myself in a dream-world populated by naked girls with big boobs. One of them had been a friend of mine. When I caught Brian trying to grope her, I kicked him, not knowing any better.

Yeah, it didn’t end well.

I contemplated giving Brian another kick now for old time’s sake, but I needed him for cover, not trusting Eli wouldn’t spot me again.

I just didn’t realize why he couldn’t keep his hands to himself. How hard can it be? If he was that desperate for sex or some pleasure, he could have go online and checked out a tubev.sex porn video or something.

*************************************************************************************************

Now for the tags:

• Cat York
• Kathy Bradey
• Mallory Hayes
• Kimberlee Turley
• Stepanie Jones
• Chelsea Fine
• Sarah L. Blair

One of the things you hear most often from other writers who are going through the editing process is that they have a tendency to use the same character reactions over and over again. This is definitely true of me and my process with The Nightmare Affair. Mostly, the times that I do this is during scenes with a lot of dialogue. My characters tend to do a lot of nodding, shrugging, and glaring. 

I think the primary reason why I tend to overuse these reactions is because they’re quick and easy. Rather than slow down and picture my characters acting out these scenes, I sometimes skate along, focused completely on the dialogue and not on what they’re doing. This is definitely a sign of lazy writing, and something I’m consciously working to improve.

However, sometimes – a lot of times, really – you need to have those character reactions in there. The characters are always the most important element in a story. What they’re feeling/thinking/doing is what gives the story the life it needs to keep readers engaged.

Given that, I’ve decided to create a Glossary of Character Reactions. This is definitely just for fun and not something I plan on using as a crutch (and neither should you). I almost feel like a cheat doing it at all. But writing is a collaborative process, and anybody who tells you differently either needs an ego-check or they’ve never worked with a serious critique partner, agent, or editor yet. Also, I intend this to be a brain-jogger. Sometimes when I’m revising/editing, my brain gets tired and this list can be a way to get the juices flowing again. Also I have a feeling it might give us a few laughs, too.

So below you’ll see the list I’ve comprised so far. My challenge to you, dear readers and friends, is to help me expand the list by adding your own favorite character reactions as well as a couple of new ones in the comments. Then in a couple of days, I’ll add everybody’s suggestions into a master list and do a new blog post. Sound fun? I hope so. At the very least we can all bond over how dependent we all are on ourcharacters reactions (she said with a shrug). (You can comment here or on Blogger)

1. blinked

2. blushed

3. flushed

4. glanced

5. glared

6. glowered

7. grinned

8. looked

9. nodded

10. scowled

11. shrugged

12. sighed

13. smiled

14. sneered

15. trembled

Some of you might be aware that I pitched my debut novel The Nightmare Affair to my lovely agent as Veronica Mars meets Hex Hall. So it goes without saying that I’m a big fan of Rachel Hawkins. And guess what? She’s coming to my home town (read: Dayton, Ohio),Thursday night for a signing! Woohoo! *does happy dance*

So if you live in the Dayton area, you can find out more about the signing here: http://www.booksandco.com/calendar.html

And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out the Hex Hall series. The first two books, Hex Hall and Demonglass have been out for awhile and the conclusion Spellbound released a few days ago.

So awhile back, I held a contest to win an ARC of Tempest by my lovely agent sister, Julie Cross. Now I’m thrilled to announce that Julie is coming to my hometown this Thursday night. That’s right. She’ll be at the Centerville branch of the Washington Centerville Public Library at 7:00 on March 8^th. The event is free and you don’t need to register to attend. More information can be found at http://www.wclibrary.info/.

And in case you haven’t read Julie’s book yet (um, why not???) check out the description below. Oh, yeah, and it’s going to be a movie soon, too. How cool is that? Hope to see you there!

The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler. Recruit… or kill him.

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

I’m going to take the truth on this one, and a big thank you to K. Turley for asking it. I would’ve been cool doing the dare, too, but K. Turley’s question had the makings for a semi-interesting blog post.

Here’s the question:

Have you ever told someone you liked their book when you actually didn’t (and what’s the reason why)?

So the answer to this is both no and…yes, kinda. I would be an outright liar if I tried to tell you that I’m always completely honest about my feelings for every book/manuscript/story I’ve read. I definitely censor. I definitely don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. I don’t want my own feelings to get stomped on. I believe in paying-it-forward and do unto others and karma and all of that. I don’t believe that telling someone you hated their story serves any purpose other than to hurt and teardown.

I have not, however, ever told someone at length that I liked/loved their book in its entirety when I actually didn’t. Instead, I focus on any element of the book I genuinely liked and refer to that specifically. For example, I might’ve said, “I really liked character So-and-So,” or “Wow, that was a killer ending,” or “Great dialogue.” The truth of the matter is, almost every story has some kind of redeeming quality to it if you look hard enough.

There are exceptions. I once read a story in a short fiction class in college that was so horrible and offensive that I simply couldn’t comment on it in any way that wasn’t negative and so I didn’t. I might’ve even skipped class the day it was scheduled to be discussed, although I don’t remember for sure.

But the point I want to make is this: human beings learn better and faster from positive feedback than negative. Now, you may disagree with me, and that’s fine. But I can say for myself, that nothing makes me strive harder to do well than positive reinforcement. When someone tells me I’ve done something well, I try to do that thing again and again, but only better. I emphasize the positive.

Here’s another example, but in reverse. There are people who believe that by leaving a bad tip for a server is a way to teach them to do better. This is wrong. Just plain wrong. Now, I fully expect people to disagree with me, but I’m speaking from experience here. I waited tables all throughout college, and never once in all that time did I ever hear a fellow server say, “Gee, I guess that customer left that crappy tip because I didn’t fill their drink often enough or because I was inattentive in some way.”

Nope, not once. Ever.

Wanna know what they do say? “Gee, those people are a bunch of cheap a**holes.” By leaving that bad tip those customers might think they’re teaching a bad server a lesson, but it’s not true. You can’t really teach the bad ones anything, anyway. You can’t teach people to be good. All you can do is encourage them to be better. By leaving a server a nice tip, even if they sucked, you might be helping the next customer get better service.

The same premise is applicable to writing. If I really enjoyed a particular character or element of a story, then by pointing it out to the writer, I might help make sure those good elements make it into the next story and so on.

Don’t get me wrong, in a critique situation I will point out the parts of a story that didn’t work for me or that I think need to be revised. There is such a thing as constructive criticism, but flat-out telling an author you hated their book isn’t for me.  And honestly, the books I’m liable to hate, I don’t read anyway.

Happy Writing!

Yeah, that’s right. I’m entering a Truth or Dare challenge initiated by the lovely Julie Cross, author of the fantastic TEMPEST. In order to kick-start her blog rebirth, Julie’s challenging her teamTEENauthor friends to create an identical Truth or Dare post and let their readers pick the truths or dares we are to answer/perform. To complete a dare, the author must provide photographic or video footage proof of performing said DARE. In the case of a “DARE FAIL” the author will post the photo shown below on their blog for no less than one week regardless of whether it matches the blog’s color scheme.

This post is the one where I answer commonly asked truth or dare questions —provided by Google— and then any reader brave enough to reveal a truth about themselves, can then challenge me to answer another truth or perform a dare.  You can read Julie’s post here and find out more about TEMPEST.

So here it goes:

MOST COMMON TRUTH OR DARE QUESTIONS

1)      If your significant other said it was all right, would you cheat on them?

Um — hell to the no. Truth is, I’m a jealous person. Which means if the hubby were making this offer to me, I would assume it’s because he wants to do the same. In which case, we’d be in for some serious trouble.

2)      What is there about your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse) that embarrasses you?

My hubby is a guy-guy, aka not a single metrosexual impulse in his entire body. This also means he has no sense of color coordination when it comes to clothes. He simply just doesn’t care (which is fine by me, BTW). Fortunately, his lack of clothes coordination ability is rarely a source of embarrassment for me, because if he tries to wear a red shirt with green cargo pants, I send him back to the closet to change.

3)      What is more important than money?

Family. Period. Always.

4)      When have you loved someone who has not loved you back?

This has not happened to me, not genuinely. There have been plenty of people I’ve been attracted to who weren’t attracted back, and vice versa, but that’s definitely not love.

5)      When was the first time you had your heart broken?

The day one of our dogs, a Siberian Husky named Nikita, got loose from the background and struck by a car. I was maybe 10 or so. I shut myself up in my closet for several hours and cried and cried and cried.

6)      When is it all right to mix love and business?

Um, always — at least when you’re a writer. I LOVE writing and telling stories, but it’s definitely a business at the same time. And I’m cool with that.

7)      If you were given a chance to become invisible for one day, what would you do with this ability

Spy on either Nathan Fillion or Viggo Mortensen. I’d just follow one of them around for a day. Why you say? Just to see what they’re like in real person. They both seem so cool to me. Nathan, because he’s funny and a screwball and just looks like a blast. Viggo because he’s a “guy-guy” who likes to ride horses and be outdoors, but he also enjoys poetry and reading. It would be fun to confirm their coolness.

8)      If you could see 24 hours into the future what would you do with this ability

I would be seriously tempted to bet on some kind of sport event. Then again, I would probably chicken out. I’ve seen Back to the Future waaaaaay too many times to fall into that trap.

9)      Who was your first crush with?

Oh my, this one is going to be so funny and obscure, I’m afraid you won’t believe it. The true answer? Heath Barkley from the very-old western TV show, The Big Valley, as played by Lee Majors. Heath was the quintessential rebel and an outcast cowboy. And he had the cutest way of raising just one eyebrow. Oh and I was in like the 4^th grade, so there you go.

10)   When is it all right for your boyfriend/girlfriend to lie to you?

Whenever I ask his opinion on how I look. Sorry, I’m vane that way. Can’t help it. And when you’ve had two kids, you need all the vanity perks you can get.

11)   If you were the opposite sex for one day, what would you look like and what would you do?

I would probably look a bit like Scott Caan, on the short side but stout. As far as what I would do? Spend the day eating pizza and drinking beer and not worrying about burning those calories off later.

Wanna Join the Game?

So you want to play in my game? Here’s what you do: answer one of the above truth questions in the comment section. Then it’s your turn to ask me a truth…or offer a DARE.

Hi All!

So my fantastically wonderful critique partner and agent sister Lori M. Lee is holding a massive give-away on her blog to celebrate her blog’s 1 year anniversary. Among those prizes is another query critique plus 5-pages from me. And guess what? The winner of that prize will get aslo get a critique from Lori and two other awesome writers!

And if that’s not reason enough to enter,  you can also win partial manuscript critiques, Barnes & Noble gift cards, new and upcoming books. So what are you waiting for? Go check it out here.

Oh, and be sure to check back in next week as I enter the super-awesome/ super-scary team TEENauthor challenge, involving truth or dares performed by yours truly. Yikes!

Happy Writing!

Firstly, I want to say thank you to everyone who entered the query and 10-page critique contest. I really wish I had the time to give each and every one of you personal feedback. At a minimum, I promise to hold regular contests for critiques from here on out.

And now for the winner, courtesy of the magic that is random.org:

Katherine Amabel

Huge congrats! *throws confetti*

I’ll be emailing Katherine shortly with instructions, and I wish the rest of you best of luck with your writing!