The Next Big Thing

Dianne Salerni over at In High Spirits invited me to partake in a little blog hop today--The Next Big Thing. You can stop over at her blog and see what she's got going there.

We're all answering ten question relating to our WIPs. So, here's The Next Best Thing:

What is the working title of your book?

A Change of Plans

Where did the idea come from for the book?

It started as a dream with a guy and girl stranded on an island. There was a treehouse. When I decided to write it, I had to figure out how to get them there and chose a Pacific cruise.

What genre does your book fall under?

Adventure romance, although there are some who call it women's lit.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

You know, my oldest son asked me that same question. I don't even think about this kind of thing.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Really? A one-sentence synopsis of a 92,000 word book? How about a one-line pitch?

Pacific cruise, intriguing guy, and pirates.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

A Change of Plans comes out on June 1, 2013 through Rhemalda Publishing.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Thirty days. I did my own NaNoWriMo, since I'd learned about it too late to participate. Wrote 80,000 words.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I'm not much into the comparison thing as it makes me feel presumptuous. It's a story about love and loss and finding out there are different kinds of strength--including some that aren't good for your long-term happiness.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Years ago I started writing my personal history but set it aside. Nearly three years ago I thought it was time to pull it out again, but I decided it might be nice to learn a bit about writing so it wasn't a cure for my descendants' insomnia. I've always had stories running in my mind, but when I was younger I could only do short stories. I had to see if I could write a full-length novel.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

One of the secondary characters wasn't in the first draft. I decided I needed to add another person because of something I wanted to have happen in the book (trying not to spoil here). His character didn't do what I wanted him to do for the book, so I had to consider whether or not to cut him out. 

However, I discovered the little turkey had wheedled his way into my heart. Not only could I not cut him, but I needed to tell his story, too. I'm writing a companion novel with him as the main character. It will be my NaNo project next month. Here's a link to an excerpt where the main character Lyn meets this guy.

All right. You've heard about my book. Now it's time for me to tag five people (yeah, I know there are six names below). They have graciously accepted the tag, and you can click on their links and read about their WIPs--and I encourage you to follow them, too.

Luke Peterson
Rachel Hert
Rachelle Christensen
Kristy Tate
Tamara Heiner
Valerie J. Steimle

Have you read anything good lately?

Random Acts of Kindness BLITZ

Kindness ROCKS!
Each day people interact with us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in the Writing Community.

Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice and inspiration when asked.

So many people take the time to make us feel special, don't they? They comment on our blogs, retweet our posts, chat with us on forums and wish us Happy Birthday on Facebook.

To commemorate the release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus, Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse are hosting a TITANIC Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ. And because I think KINDNESS is contagious, I'm participating too!

I'm selecting two amazing authors today who went out of their way to help me out with my current book that's in submission.

One is Dianne Salerni, author of We Hear the Dead and Caged Graves. When I was struggling with conflicting advice for my query, Dianne emailed me with some suggestions that really helped me see what I needed to do with it and be confident about it.

The other is Laura Josephson, author of  Confessions from the Realm of the Underworld (Also Known as High School) and Rising, Book 1. Laura was also kind enough as she watched me struggle with my query to offer help. She also voluntarily critiqued my full manuscript.


My gift to each of these awesome ladies if an amazon gift card. If you have a minute, please stop by their blogs and tell them how awesome they are.

If you know someone special you'd like to randomly acknowledge, please don't be shy--come join us and celebrate! Send an email, give a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way.

Kindness makes the world go round. 



I know Becca and Angela over at The Bookshelf Muse don't want any attention on themselves during the Blitz, but I need to thank them, too. Because their Emotional Thesaurus blog--now a book as of today--has been a fabulous resource for me. I can't tell you how many times I've run to them to trigger my old lady gray matter. Kudos to you both!

They have a special RAOK gift waiting for you as well, so hop on over to to pick it up.

Have you ever participated in or been the recipient of a Random Act of Kindness?

Do tell!

Superlatives?

I need to thank Carrie Butler over at So, You're a Writer for an award I'd never seen before:

Thanks for thinking of me, Carrie. I agree with you in your post here. This award is a little more complicated and, for me, difficult to assess. Recipients are supposed to provide links back to a few of their blog posts based upon seven categories. 

How the heck am I supposed to determine "seven post superlatives"? For example, is a post most popular because it had the most comments, that it had the power to get people to take the time to respond? Or the number of visitors who, perhaps, left too stunned by the quality of the post to comment (yeah, and then I wake up). How do we quantify someone else's experience when they visit our blogs?
I can't. So you're stuck with my interpretation. And I'm biased, either for or against.

1. Most Beautiful

Tribute
The post I wrote after my father died last march.








2. Most Popular

According to my blog stats, it appears that my Fun & Games Blogfest post had the most page views. By a substantial number.


3. Most Controversial
This one was easy to decide on. It was the post about self-publishing.

4. Most Helpful
Okay. Now it's getting hard because this is so subjective. How do I really know if something I've written about turned out to be helpful to someone? 

Source

So, I'll go with one of my Grammar Friday posts and hope that I'm right. I like the one dealing with punctuation because I love the example so much.



5. Most Surprisingly Successful

I think this has to be my unmentionables post. I'm not into risque posts, and most of the ones I'd seen were definitely that, so when I was tagged for that meme, I was conflicted. However, I decided there was room for some potential humor there while still maintaining my propriety.



6.  Most Underrated
Once again, how can I even guess at this? I suggest it was my review of Natalie Palmer's book Second Kiss, which I dearly loved.









7. Most Pride Worthy
I'm not sure what to put on here, either. I was tempted to leave it up to you guys, but I decided to list my book review of the I Am Not a Serial Killer series by Dan Wells. Perhaps because this is not a genre I read anymore. Perhaps it's because of the way Dan managed to make me love the terribly flawed, icky fantasizing, wanting to be noble John Cleaver that makes me gush about this series. John is no Dexter to try and justify his atrocities by targeting an "appropriate" kind of victim. Seriously. I can't gush enough about this series. It really struck a chord with me.

So, there you have it. My 7 (presumptuous) superlatives. Now I get to select seven others to pass this on to. Be sure to check their blogs out:

An Alleged Author

Cindy M. Hogan

Dianne K. Salerni

Ellie Garratt

Laila Knight

L.G. Smith

Mark Noce

Here's to a great week everyone. I need to get through another poll worker training session (hopefully not an epic fail this time) and then I have a four-day weekend. And my mind is buzzing with ideas for WIP #3!