When Blogging Buddies Meet Part II - And Dark Days of Supernatural Author Tour!

Last Thursday, I went out to Austin for the Dark Days of Supernatural author tour to see Veronica Roth (Divergent), Tara Hudson (Hereafter), Amy Plum (Die For Me), Ellen Schreiber (Vampire Kisses series), and Aprilynne Pike (Wings series). They were all fab, and per my usual, I rode the inspiration high all weekend and cranked out nearly 4,000 words!

Here is a picture of me with Veronica Roth and Tara Hudson.

I also met Amy Plum, who was super sweet, and she brought chocolate with sea salt all the way from France to share with all of us. 

I also got to meet Stephanie of Stephanie, A History 

as well as Cari of Cari's Book Blogs (far left) and Lena of Addicted 2 Novels (far right).

The third smiling face in the picture is my good friend (and fabulous writer) Mari. She is blogless. One of these days, she'll crack, and when she does, you'll be the first to know!

I also got to meet Jen from I Read Banned Books!

It was a great mini-road trip, and I look forward to seeing my blogging friends at future events :)

Five years ago, I could have, no problem

I love going to see authors on book tours. LOVE it. I leave with a new wave of inspiration after hearing about their publishing story, their writing process, what they're working on now. And while I feel like I can't wait to get to that point, to be on my own author tour one day and meet readers face to face, I realized something. I never ask questions at author events.

It's not that I don't come up with anything to ask, it's that I know as soon as I open my mouth to speak and all eyes are on me, my face becomes a tomato. My face will turn red if I even just THINK about the idea for too long. And I used to be in a band! I SANG in front of people every weekend for YEARS. I've done weddings! Summer camps! Even a funeral.

Another fear I have about being an author one day and making appearances, is that I don't feel smart enough. Why does having an overactive brain that likes to make up stories qualify me as an authority on anything? I don't feel like I'm very deep. I always got lost in that part of literature class... digging out the deeper meaning. You mean, it's not just a story about kids stranded on an island killing each other?? What does an animal farm have to do with the government?? Not my kinds of stories.

If there's some major philosophical message that someone picks out of one of my stories, chances are that I didn't put it in there on purpose. So don't ask me questions about it, because I will turn red. haha. And I realize this is a VERY premature fear, seeing as how I'm not even done with the first draft of my WIP and there is always a very real possibility that it won't ever go anywhere. But I can't help asking the what ifs.

What about you? Worried about that possible author signing one day? Worried that they'll expect too much from you?

Outlined

I'm usually a pantser, but for this WIP, I'm trying something out of my norm. I opened a blank sheet in Scrivener (my writing program that rocks my face off and even lets me block out EVERYTHING on my computer except for the chapter I'm working on) and made a bulleted list of chapters. I'd already written chapters 1-9, so I started with 10 and typed up a list of little descriptions and snippets of dialogue I don't trust myself to remember by the time I actually write the chapter for real.

I outlined all the way to chapter 34 (my goal is 45, considering the word count average of my chapters--this should also give me room to add/take away as I'm actually writing) and it's already serving as a fantastic guide as I continue writing forward. It's nothing fancy, and half of the sentences are incomplete. It's just for me to know (remember) where I'm headed.

I plan to finish the outline but I'm at a bit of a crossroads and I haven't decided which route to go yet. Maybe I'll turn it into one of those books with alternate endings. "If you choose to wrestle the alligator, turn to page 57. If you turn and run, screaming like a child, turn to page 73."

And I think I'm closer to revealing my working title for this project with y'all. I might need another day or two to keep turning it over on my tongue, maybe write it down on my binder with little squiggles and hearts... but so far it's been met with very positive reactions from my critique gals, so it just might be a keeper. :)

Do you outline? What's your outlining process like? Is it a mess/rough guideline like mine, or a work of art in itself?

A Wee Bit More Professional

Yes I changed my blog once again! This makes what, the third time just in 2011?? As long as I don't get bored of it too quickly, this should stay for a while. I wanted something a bit more pro looking, and less bloggy. There are even tabs along the top!

I made the background and header, and Kim helped me with all the technical layout stuff cause she ROCKS!! And she just redesigned her blog as well, so you'll have to pop over and take a look.

The downside... the switch over erased by blog roll widgets, so I have to manually add them back in. I've added some of the authors and agents I follow, but I had around 100 other blogging friends listed, so it's going to take me a while to get them back up. o_O

 Back to work!

Lunedi felice :)

Great Posts about the WSJ Thing...

Divergent author Veronica Roth posted a statement addressing the article released by The Wall Street Journal that's been met with swinging axes by YA authors and fans alike. Read what she had to say HERE.

I also enjoyed this post at Nothing Cannot Happen Today. She discusses the wide range of ages young adult books are labeled for. Perhaps YA books need a rating system? Obviously a twelve year old and an eighteen year old are going to have a different maturity level and therefore what they can handle/should be reading about are likely to be on different pages (or in different books... ;).

Something needs to change or young adult books will continue to get slammed. Sure, there are some books that may surprise me, but I won't complain about them and start some kind of fight, criticizing the author. I will simply own up to the fact that the book isn't for me (as a twenty-eight year old adult, even), and guess what? I don't read it. The end. It was written, and it was probably written for a reason, and that reason does not apply to me. But it no doubt applies to someone.

All this to say, I'm all for age recommendations on books, especially if some parents still aren't monitoring what their children (especially the younger, possibly more sensitive set) read. Like Veronica Roth mentioned in her article, I was also a pretty sensitive child. I could see a television special on forest fires and have nightmares for weeks that my house was burning down. I didn't grow out of truly being affected and sometimes scared by what I saw/read about until I was near high school age. Every child grows at a different pace, and it's the parent's responsibility to know what their child can and can't handle.

I made the mistake of skimming through some of the comments to the WSJ article. Wow. If you want your blood to boil.... There is a lot of ignorance in the world. I don't know why this continually surprises me, but it does.  

A Tisket, a Title

After hours upon hours spent trying to come up with a title for my Italy WIP, even just a place-holder working title, one finally came to me when I wasn't even thinking about it.

I'm not sure I'm ready to share yet... it might be lame. I need time to process. You know how sometimes you come up with something you think is SO cool, then you tell someone about it and you don't get the reaction you were expecting... and a week later--when your bruises heal--you finally say, "MAN that was DUMB! WHAT WAS I THINKING?" Yes. I'd like to avoid that. hahaha.

Hopefully this will inspire me to just keep typing away, full speed ahead. Fingers crossed I don't get distracted by anything else!

Happy weekend!! I've got a photo shoot today and a wedding reception for Handy's aunt tomorrow (I may even let myself eat a slice of cake!). How about you? Anything fun lined up??

I sat down to write, but then...

I got distracted. Does this happen to anyone else? I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm at a good place in my WIP... I actually feel like I know where I'm going with this chapter. Why can't I just do it?!

Instead, I started looking for agents to query. Hello. I'm only on chapter ten. LONG ways from the query. Nevertheless, I got up, flipped through a handful of my favorite books, and took down agent names. I figure, if I've heard of the book enough to buy it, the agent must have a pretty darn good idea how to get books into the right hands. Good place to start... eventually. I'm stopping myself there, with my handwritten list of agents to research LATER when I'm READY.

I don't even have a TITLE. Let me tell you how much time I spent trying to come up with one of THOSE. I usually have the title so early on in my writing process (it's often one of the first things about the story I know), so I'm very miffed about this one. I'm letting it bother me to the point that coming up with a title is keeping me from writing the actual story, and NON MI PIACE (peeah-chay, in case you looked at that and went, huh?! It means, I DON'T LIKE IT!).

What kinds of things distract you? Anyone else cruising along on their stories but have yet to be inspired with a title? Any ideas how to come up with one?? :)