My Reading List: Wings

 

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.
Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.
Laurel's life is the very definition of normal . . . until the morning when she wakes up to discover a flower blooming from her back. As it turns out, nothing in Laurel's life is what it seems. Now, with the help of an alluring faerie sentry who holds the key to her true past, Laurel must race to save her human family from the centuries-old faerie enemies who walk among them.

My Reading List: Cinder

 

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

 Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Contests: WriterTherapy

I'm so excited!  I won a Query critique from the awesome folk at WriterTherapy.com.  Don't know what a query is?  Well, you will :)

From AgentQuery.com

"A query letter is a single page cover letter, introducing you and your book. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not a resume. It’s not rambling saga of your life as an aspiring writer. It’s not a friendly, “Hey, what’s up, buddy. I’m the next John Grisham. Got the next best selling thriller for ya,” kind of letter. And for the love of god, it is NOT more than one-page. Trust us on this.

A query letter has three concise paragraphs: the hook, the mini-synopsis, and your writer’s biography. Don’t stray from this format. You won’t catch an agent’s attention by inventing a creative new query format. You’ll just alienate your chances of being taken seriously as a professional writer. A query letter is meant to elicit an invitation to send sample chapters or even the whole manuscript to the agent. It’s not meant to show off how cute and snazzy you can be by breaking formatting rules and going against the grain. Keep it simple. Stick to three paragraphs. The goal is to get the agent to read your book, not to blow you off because you screwed up the introduction.

Paragraph One—The Hook: A hook is a concise, one-sentence tagline for your book. It’s meant to hook your reader’s interest, and wind them in.

Paragraph Two—Mini-synopsis: This is where you get to distill your entire 300 page novel into one paragraph. Lucky you.

So think of it this way. You had trouble writing the gist of your book in one sentence, right? Now, you get a whole paragraph. About 150 extra words. Here’s your chance to expand on your hook. Give a little bit more information about your main characters, their problems and conflicts, and the way in which adversity changes their lives. Read the back flaps of your favorite novels and try to copy how the conflict of the book is described in a single, juicy paragraph. You can do this. You really can. You just have to sit down, brainstorm, then vomit it all out onto the page. Afterwards, cut, paste, trim, revise, and reshape.

Paragraph Three—Writer’s bio: This should be the easiest part of your query. After all, it’s about you, the writer. Okay, so it’s a bit daunting, especially if you’ve never been published, never won any awards, hold no degrees from MFA writing schools, and possess no credentials to write your book. No problem. The less you have to say, the more space you have for your mini-synopsis. Always a plus.

Your Closing: Congratulations! You’ve finished your query letter. As a formal closing, be sure to do two things. First, thank the agent for her time and consideration.  If it’s fiction, alert the agent that the full manuscript is available upon request. And in case you still don’t believe us, we want to reiterate: don’t query agents until you’ve finished your full fiction manuscript. Agents will want to read the whole novel before they offer representation to you and your book."

So...are you ready to read my Query Letter for The Phoenix: A Gathering?  I'm sure it's not quite perfect, but I've revised it probably 10 times in the last month or two.  I hope it's close!

Dear Agent (this will obviously be personalized),

Seventeen-year-old Ivy Watson has just met the gorgeous Dane Phillips who's annoying, mysterious, and...naked. Unfortunately, just after she finds him, he commandeers her trusty blue Chevy and holds it hostage for a kiss.

As if meeting this strange boy isn't enough, he helps her to finally meet the recluse father she’s never known, who, along with Dane, turns out to be part of an ancient society of regenerating humans. Ivy learns she is a hybrid, a genetic anomaly that shouldn’t exist - humans and Phoenix are incompatible.

Nathaniel Williams, an extremist member of the Phoenix kidnaps Ivy for an experiment hoping to eradicate the human race. Nathaniel soon discovers that Ivy is immune to the effects of his experiment and that she could actually be the destruction of his people. She must learn to embrace the part of her that is Phoenix in order to save herself from a life of enslavement to the one man that has the power to break down all her defenses.

THE PHOENIX: A GATHERING is a Young Adult Paranormal novel complete at 81,000 words.  This is my first novel.

Thank you for your consideration,

Contests: WriterTherapy

 

The talented team at Writer Therapy are holding yet, another great contest.  But first, they have some great new webisodes that have just been released.  Here is the first one:

And the second one:

I hope you enjoyed these two webisodes as much as I did. Keep checking back at WriterTherapy.com for upcoming videos.

My Writing: Round 1 Revisions...DONE!

Ha!  Take that round 1 revisions.  I have finished thee.  On September 5th I gave my self a goal of two weeks to complete my first set of revision and now 17 days later I'm done (ahem...please ignore my 3 day overage, this is my first editing attempt after all).

So, what have I learned?

1. When you write your first draft (pantser style as I do) your fingers tend to type one or two words behind your brain, such as: Yesterday, I to the mall to buy a new shirt.  Did you catch it?  The missing word?  Read it again, you will.
2. Correcting the tense may seem quick and easy, but in reality, it's a lot harder than I thought.  Sure changing 'did' to 'do' or vice versa is easy, the hard part is when a sentence or paragraph is written in the wrong tense.  You have to go in and rearrange the whole structure to make sure the flow is just right.  Not.  That.  Easy.
3. First revisions lead to second revisions.  And most likely third.

So what's next?  Revision #2 of course.  Oh, and a few select test readers.

My Reading List: Hidden

 

Hidden by Sophie Jordan

A dangerous journey.

Shattered bonds.

Undying passion. 

Jacinda was supposed to bond with Cassian, the "prince" of their pride. But she resisted her fate long before she fell in love with Will—a human and, worse, a hunter. When she ran away with Will, it ended in disaster, with Cassian's sister, Miram, captured. Weighed down by guilt, Jacinda knows she must rescue her to set things right. Yet to do so she will have to venture deep into the heart of enemy territory. 

The only way Jacinda can reach Miram is by posing as a prisoner herself, though once she assumes that disguise, things quickly spiral out of her control. As she learns more about her captors, she realizes that even if Will and Cassian can carry out their part of the plan, there's no guarantee they'll all make it out alive. But what Jacinda never could have foreseen is that escaping would be only the beginning. . . .

Loyalties are tested and sacrifices made in the explosive conclusion to Sophie Jordan's Firelight trilogy.

Contests: WriterTherapy

So have you ever wanted to enter a writing contest?  I never knew I could ;)  Today, I found out about this contest by WriterTherapy.com and decided to toss my hat into the mix.  Here's a little info about the contest:

We know how important that first line is for hooking an agent, editor, and reader. Now show us some great beginnings! We have three fabulous agents giving prizes for three talented winners of our first page contest. So what are the prizes?

Grand Prize for 3 talented winners
Query critique from agent Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger
Query critique from agent Molly Ker Hawn, The Bent Agency
1st Chapter critique from Nicole Resciniti, The Seymour Agency

Runners-up will receive awesome prizes, including more 1st chapter critiques, books, mouse pads, and more!

 

So, wouldn't it  be great to win any number of those prizes???  If you're a writer, you should go check it out - who knows, maybe you'll be one of the lucky winners!

My Writing: Revisions

Revisions, day 1: first 25 pages - DONE!

This is what the first page of my manuscript looks like after I've made my initial revisions with the good old red pen.  Oh how I love thee!  Actually, I really do.  I find that I feel a sense of accomplishment when I see the red ink on the page, it's good to revise and edit your work.

Now, I'm on to typing up my changes on the first 25 pages.

My Writing: Let the edits begin

Round 1: Read my novel...

Sounds easy enough...right?

Right.  Right?  Okay, we'll see...

Here's what I'm looking for:

• Pieces of the plot that may be missing
• Pieces of the plot that don't make sense
• Pacing
• Tense (as in past and present tense...believe it or not, it's harder than you think to keep it all the same)
• Are my characters likeable?  Believable?  Annoying?

Everything else will come in round 2!

Time frame for Round 1: 2 weeks (I can do it!  Right?)

My Reading List: The Forgotten Garden

 

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

From the #1 internationally bestselling author of The House at Riverton, a novel that takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through generations and across continents as two women try to uncover their family’s secret past.

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book—a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-fi rst birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell’s death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. A spellbinding tale of mystery and self-discovery, The Forgotten Garden will take hold of your imagination and never let go.

My Reading List: Silver

 

Silver by Talia Vance

“As I step into the room, a silver flash blurs my vision.  Before I can take a breath, the world falls away.”

Brianna has always felt invisible. People stare right past her, including the one boy she can’t resist, Blake Williams. But everything changes at a house party when Brianna’s charm bracelet slips off and time stands still. In that one frozen, silver moment, Blake not only sees her, he recognizes something deep inside her that she’s been hiding even from herself.

Discovering she is descended from Danu, the legendary Bandia of Celtic myth, Brianna finds herself questioning the truth of who she is. And when she accidentally binds her soul to Blake, their mutual attraction becomes undeniable.

But Blake has his own secret, one that could prove deadly for them both.

Bound together by forbidden magic, Brianna and Blake find themselves at the heart of an ancient feud that threatens to destroy their lives and their love.