Cyber Monday, a Spotlight, and Writer's Block

Today's post has lots of stuff to choose from.

Not sure how to give an book as a gift?
It's easier than you might think!

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I'm excited to spotlight Natalie Palmer's new book, Second to None. I really enjoyed the first book in the series, Second Kiss.

You can see my review here.

“Things change. People change. Jess and I weren’t above it.”

Gemma’s first year of high school isn’t starting out the way she hoped. Jess is back from California and before she can memorize her class schedule their summer romance comes to a screeching halt. To add to her misery the gorgeous new girl in school also has eyes for Jess and despite Gemma’s unfailing attempts to win him back she keeps finding herself alone.

But when a late night car crash lands her a three month grounding and twenty hours of community service she discovers that there’s more to life than just romance and boyfriends.

Unpredictable and heart wrenching, Second to No One is the perfect continuation to the magical beginning of the Gemma and Jess romance.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BLOG | PUBLISHER

About the author:
I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah where I was spoiled to have the huge Wasatch Mountains in my backyard.  I graduated from the University of Utah with a major in English Literature but that's boring.  The exciting part was when I met and fell in love with the boy of my dreams. He wasn’t my first or second kiss but he was by far my favorite and it didn't take us long to figure out that life could never be as good apart as it was together. So we got married and have been living happily ever after ever since.

Second Kiss

“Even my most humiliating moments seemed funny somehow when I told them to Jess.” 

Gemma Mitchell is a normal girl who somehow gets herself into abnormally embarrassing circumstances. And while she thinks she's the biggest loser in school because of them, there are a few people in her life who would disagree. One of those people is her best friend, Jess Tyler, who is opposite to her in every way. He's popular, good looking, athletic, and intelligent, and he can't get enough of Gemma. But while Gemma is dealing with problems like wrong locker combinations and Valentine's Day dances, Jess is living in a world of serious issues that are foreign to Gemma, until she realizes that he's holding on to her for dear life.

Humorous and true to life, Second Kiss is an entertaining saga about a boy and girl who find that their lives have a lot more meaning once they have shared them with each other.

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Have any of you seen Amanda Hocking's hilarious blog post (yes, it's from last May) about How to Give Yourself Writer's Block?

So much good advice in there.

To my credit, while I've done them, I've never given myself writer's block. Just lucky so far, I guess. But I'm learning to steer clear of the reviews thing, especially.

Okay, be honest. Have you ever done any of those things?

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!

Blogging Challenge S(how)

As a lot of us do, I struggle with the showing part of being a storyteller. I was reading recently in Sol Stein's Solutions for Writers. He starts out by explaining why it's so easy for us to tell when we're writing. It can begin when we're children and we're being read to. We get used to someone telling us a story--and not always as well as we could have imagined it ourselves (depending upon the reader, of course). Even in school, children hear from others about things that happened somewhere else such as what a classmate did during summer break or on vacation. Learning to read ourselves changes the experience from being about something to being something.

Stein says (bolding is mine):

"All these early experiences ... can be a liability to writers later in life because the writer has to change his mind-set from telling what happened somewhere else to creating an experience for the reader by showing what happened."

I really like the way Natalie Palmer described it for me, when she critiqued my WIP #1 (and she gave me permission to quote her), because she does it in a way that makes sense to me:

I’m a movie buff.  As much as I love reading books I love watching movies even more and when I read a book I want to be able to have a movie like scene going through my head.   So instead of walking us through the events ... just pick out the most important scenes and create an entire picture of that scene.  Then make that scene tell us more than just that scene normally would ... I want to feel more depth with Lyn’s history, with her past relationship.  Instead of just telling us about ... give her a flashback that puts us there… that lets us see how she was when she found out the news.  That lets us smell the soup burning on the stove when she got the phone call, that lets us feel the paper cut on her finger when she’s rummaging through his things ... as a reader I want to feel the torture of that moment for Lyn.  Then I’ll feel more connected to her, I’ll care more about her.

Stein says that if you're concerned you're telling rather than showing, you should ask yourself some questions.

1. Does what you're writing allow the reader to see what's going on?
2. Are you as the author talking--is it possible to silence the author by using action to help the reader understand what the character feels?
3. Are emotions being named rather than conveyed with action?
4. Is a character telling another character something the character should already know?

Drawing pictures with words has never been my strength. I've jokingly called myself a minamalist when it comes to description. But I'm discovering there are more ways than I ever imagined to "show" and they don't have to include lots of flowery prose.

Is showing easy for you? Do you have any techniques that help you limit the telling?

Blogging Challenge M(oving Ahead)

I've been on an editing treadmill. One where I keep thinking I'm close to completing WIP #1, yet something comes up that throws it all back to the beginning again. Some of it is studying the craft and going back to implement what I've learned. Some of it is feedback from critiques.

The above is a colored map I did back in February, when I was planning to completely revamp it. But then as I'd faced the project at my computer, I'd decided not to shift the format of my 3-part ms, which made the mapping unnecessary. All those nifty post-it notes have been on that whiteboard for over two months, while I've worked on show not tell, dialogue tags and dialogue beats.

Natalie Palmer, who is on new baby hiatus, kindly did a critique for me. It's funny because my hubby tends to be very protective of my writing, so I don't always read him feedback I receive. It makes him mad. He likes my story just the way it is. But, no offense, he doesn't have particularly discerning tastes either--he's very easy to please. I did read Natalie's review to him, and he kept nodding his head and muttering, "Yes. Yes." for most of it. So hubby's made a mental leap in my behalf and is willing to recognize ways I can make it better.

As I considered Natalie's observations, I realized that the best way to remedy some of them would be to do shifting around of the story. So I'm back to my story map and glad I hadn't gotten around to putting all those little post-its in a folder as I'd intended.

I've been on vacation and/or sick for two weeks. I've managed to read four books (The Mage's Daughter, Princess of the Sword, Starship Troopers, and I Am Not a Serial Killer) and I've started another (City of Fallen Angels). I'm feeling rejuvenated (kinda--if I can throw off the vestiges of this dang cold and quit hacking up my lungs every morning) and ready to move ahead and get back to work. Funny what a difference a few days can make.

I really appreciate all the supportive and encouraging comments from everyone when I was having my pity party the other day. I'll close this post with a quote from my friend Robin Weeks:

Remember the definition of a published author:

One who doesn't give up.

What I've Been Reading Lately

What with all the traveling I've been doing since the new year, I've managed to get in some decent reading time. I was trying to keep track of everything I read in 2011 but when I was messing with the format of the blog I lost that list. I hope I can remember them all.

The Way of Kings

by Brandon Sanderson

Sanderson is one of my favorite authors. I read the book the first time in November, when it came out. I'm reading it again now--and taking notes.

So, you say I'm a geek? Fine. It's certainly not the first time I've done that for a book series. One of the things I loved about the Harry Potter books was Rowlings' ability to write in layers, providing clever clues for diligent readers. Reading those books is like a treasure hunt. The picture to the left is a page from my copy of Half Blood Prince.

Well, Sanderson's got that suble, clever style as well. When I read this book the first time (and it's a tank folks--1,001 pages. Significant number anyone?) I read it just to see what happened next. I can only compare this book to looking at a painting from a far distance and seeing the overall beauty. Then as you come closer it to it, you begin to pick up the intricate details and realize there's so much more going on than you originally thought. Several members of my family have read the book and a few friends as well. Our conversations usually run like this:

"Did you notice ...?"

"Yes! But what do you think this means?" or "No! You're kidding!"

It's entertaining to compare notes with other fans to see what they picked up that you did not. I guess it's obvious that I loved this book and highly recommend it. A coworker who read it commented that it could serve as the curriculum for a college class on ethics and values. I wish all college text books could be this fun to read.

The book is the first in a series of ten, and it does take a while to get into because Sanderson builds the world and shows its rich history and many cultures. The tale centers around three main characters Kaladin, Dalinar, and Shallan. Some of the storylines (Kaladin especially) are more compelling right now than others. But they're all tied together, and Sanderson drops all kinds of oh, so casual comments that seem to scream of bigger things to come. Each chapter begins with a little blerb, and they make you wonder what's going on and sometimes seem a little creepy. And they are creepy, when you find out more about them at the end. I can't wait to read the next book--which he hasn't written yet since he's finishing up the Wheel of Time series.

Star of the Morning

by Lynn Kurland

This is the first book of a romance fantasy series, and I really enjoyed it. I kept reading this morning even though I had other things I needed to do. Grrr. It left me hanging. But it's got magic and fighting and likable characters. I laughed a lot. I love strong, brave heroines, and Morgan doesn't fail in that. I love that she's absolutely forthright in her comments to everyone but especially to an unwanted traveling companion (who happens to be a King incognito). She thinks he's not a very good fighter and an idiot besides--and she has no guile in telling him exactly what she thinks of him. She's such a blow to his inflated ego. You go, girl.

Poison Study,

Magic Study,

and

Fire Study

by Maria V. Snyder

The story begins with Yelena, who at 19 has been a condemned prisoner for nearly a year awaiting her execution for kill her torturer. In her society, no killing is allowed for any reason unless they are at war. Hauled out of her rank cell, she is dragged before Valek, assassin to the Commander (ruler). Valek tells Yelena the Commander's food taster recently died (hazard of the job), and he needs a new one. Since the food taster must be someone condemned to die, Valek offers her the job. So she must decide...death now or may death later. Seems like a pretty easy choice to her. The story becomes more complicated when Yelena discovers she can do magic, something that is expressly forbidden by the Commander. Everyone found able to do magic is executed. Yelena's adventures continue in Magic Study and Fire Study. I had to keep reading to find out what happened.

The Diva Runs Out of Thyme

by Krista Davis

I'm not normally a mystery genre reader, though many of the books I read have mysteries that must be solved. I downloaded this to my Nook while in Hawaii. Sophie Winston is a wonderful cook and runs an event planning business (her life is more complicated than that). She's invited to be part of a Thanksgiving Cooking Event put on by a wealthy entrepreneur. After getting supplies at the store, she discovers a body--a private investigator who had a picture of her. Then at the event, she stumbles over the murdered entrepreneur. Now the police are looking at Sophie as a possible suspect in both killings. And then things really get complicated. It was a fun, entertaining read. Since the main character is an incredible cook, it made me hungry. I will be looking for more books in the series.

  Masques

by Patricia Briggs

This is the first book Patricia Briggs ever wrote. I'm a big fan of her Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega series. Masques is set in the same world as some of her other books (Steal the Dragon and When Demons Walk). I enjoyed the book and have already purchased Wolfsbane the sequel that was released recently.

My Fairy Fair Godmother

and

All's Fair in Love, War, and High School

both by Janette Rallison

I read Godmother to my granddaughter, while I was in Hawaii. She loved it as much as I did. You can read a detailed review here.

War is about Samantha whose lack of attention to her studies has resulted in dismal SAT scores. To beef up her resume, she decides to run for student body president. Her journey (and a competition with her enemy/friend Logan) provides her with a different view of people and their motivations, including herself, and how thoughtless words and actions can hurt others. One of the things I really enjoy about Rallison's characters is that they're good people at heart. But even good people can be mean and thoughtless at times. You don't have to be a "mean girl" to be mean.

Anna and the French Kiss

by Stephanie Perkins

I'm reading this again as part of a reading group. I loved it, and you can see my previous review here.



Courting Miss Lancaster

by Sarah M. Eden

Loved this book. For a detailed review, you can click here.

Second Kiss

by Natalie Palmer

I loved this sweet little story. Click here for the review.

There are just so many books to read. I seriously need a clone!

Life, the Universe and Everything (LTUE)

What a fun three days! I can definitely say that I enjoyed this conference (symposium) better than any I've attended for my work. Hmmm. How can learning about writing and getting to hear some of your favorite authors talking about their craft be more fun than, say, taking minutes ... or annexations ... or (heaven forbid) records management?

But seriously, I enjoy my work related conferences because they help me do my day job. And LTUE did that, too, though for a different job, my part-time job.

Robin Weeks drove down and stayed with me, and we worked as "Gophers" for the conference--the staging room for the Gophers was called ... yes, the Gopher Hole. The head Gopher was named Toad.

Really.

He's a great guy. Gophering wasn't an onerous job. We signed up for different sessions (so many more options than we provide for my work conferences--my education committee would literally die if they had to get speakers for that many breakout sessions). We were responsible for making sure there was water and cups for the presenters/panelists, taking roll, and giving the 5-minute warning. It gave us an opportunity to chat with the panelists, though Robin's a lot more confident than I am about approaching them. I'm certainly not shy, but I haven't got the chutzpah she has.

At the end of the three days, they have a Gopher Bash and awarded a prize to the most helpful Gopher. The young man who won the prize (a size 5X T-shirt donated by Howard Tayler [comedic webcomic known for Schlock Mercenery] or Dan Wells [best known for writing I Am Not a Serial Killer] and who both cohost Writing Excuses with Brandon Sanderson [not able to attend]--can't remember if Howard or Dan donated the shirt). Anyway, the winner was a very slender young man, and the young Gophers decided to see how many of them could fit in the shirt:

The Symposium

There were so many attendees! I heard they had 1,300 people. It's held on the BYU campus, and students can attend for free, so it's a wonderful opportunity. The cost is minimal at $20 if paid in advance or $25 at the door. (that's for all 3 days).

James Dashner of the Maze Runner trilogy fame was one of the two keynote speakers. Hilarous man. He was on many panels and brought a lot to the discussions as he talked about his journey to being published. What really struck me was how dreadful his first book signing went. It made me think of Natalie Palmer's experience, though she's already learned how to make those go better. It was funny, when James gave Brodi Ashton a shout out but then teased her about needing help deciding which agent to go with (yes, she had several wanting to represent her).

What would that be like?

There were so many great sessions. Following are some of the words of advice I wrote down:

• Critique groups can be wonderful, but they can also be crippling. Put your work in the hands of people you trust. -- James Dashner
• Let yourself be jealous because it makes you ambitious. -- James Dashner
• Don't write just what's hot in the market. -- Tyler Whiteside
• Attend writers conferences -- Tyler Whiteside and James Dashner (and others)
• Critique groups should include people who like and read your genre. -- Mette Ivie Harrison
• Write more than one book before trying to publish because once you start marketing you have so little time to write. -- Anna Del C Dye
• The average number of books sold by self-publishing authors is 16.
• For a killer opening you need a first sentence that makes the reader want to read the first paragraph which makes the reader want to read the first chapter.
• When writing strong women, they don't have to 'kick butt' in a physical sense but can be strong as problem solvers, be proactive, stand up for what they believe, act with strength in spite of their weaknesses.
• Pay it Forward -- be supportive of other fledgling writers. Don't say negatives things about other writers' works. If you don't like them, don't say anything.
• If you write a childrens' book and schedule school visits, it's good to to plan a book signing in a location in the area of the school within a week of the visit.
• Romance works when the reader buys into the characters and believes in them as a couple. In a sense, the reader needs to fall in love, too.
• Don't sacrifice your story for reality.
• Don't quit.
• Don't think you've got it made when you start selling.
• Don't let rejections get you down. Go out to dinner with every 10th rejection.
• Finish that first manuscript.
• The best way to get out of the Slush Pile is to get into it in the first place.
• Network - be nice to everybody
• There's no one right way to write a story.
• The writer's job is to write the best story ever; let the editor fix the punctuation.
• Favorite new word: "suckify" by Elana Johnson
• A pitch to an agent is short, emotionally driven, interesting, full of conflict, about someone, your book in bullet points. It is NOT rambling, every plot point, bland, without conflict, about the 40,000 people who live in the world you've created.

And the best word of advice from James Dashner: The first thing you have to do to be published is be born.

ETA:

A quote by author Dave Farland that I posted on Facebook got a response from a college professor friend of mine:

"You can learn a lot of bad habits in college writing classes." --Dave Farland

Bert commented (bolding is mine):

as a college writing instructor, I agree...

Academic writing is suitable for the academic world, just as legal or business or military writing is suitable for a particular audience. The beginning lesson for any writing class OUGHT to be understanding audience and purpose.

There's a time to express oneself and a time to realize "This isn't about me," but there is never a time to forget the audience.

I thought that was brilliant.

"Buzz of Love" & Literary Couples

My friend Natalie Palmer is having a Valentines Day contest here about her book "Second Kiss", which is a YA romance. You ought to check it out--both her contest and the book.

****
And speaking about Valentines Day and romance and young adults, it made me think about some of my favorite and not-so-favorite literary couples.

I'll start with the less happy couples

1. Andrew "Ender" Wiggins and Novinha (I absolutely loath this toxic relationship. Ender deserved so much better) from Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind.
2. Catherine and Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights
3. Jacob and Renesme from Breaking Dawn (sorry, but that's just creepy even if it's innocent)

Couples I like:

1. Jane and Rochester in Jane Eyre
2. Anne and Gilbert in Anne of Green Gables
3. Lucy and Nicholas in Moonrakers Bride

These are a few of mine. What are your's?

Book Review - 'Second Kiss' by Natalie Palmer

My copy of this book arrived earlier this week, and I started reading it that night, though it took a couple of days before I had time to really delve into it.

The main character, Gemma, is subject to the usual dumb mistakes that adolescents make, but she has a real flair for taking them a step further. This obviously causes her great embarrassment, and the social blunders take their toll on her social life.

That's not really all that bad as far as she is concerned as long as her closest friend, Jess, is there. He was assigned to walk her to school when she first started attending, and their friendship began there. He became her a protector, and he's been doing it ever since, providing her with strength, understanding, comfort, and support. He truly has her back.

But little does she know just how much this handsome, popular boy relies on her for his own strenth.

I love the way the story develops over the course of about 18 months. You get to see the long-time friendship of these two young people and watch as it evolves with them. Any friendship can survive in good times, but its true mettle is how it grows and changes in adversity.

I got sucked into the story and couldn't put the book down. My time on the exercise bike and the treadmill this morning went way too fast, and I had to take the book with me to work today, so I could finish it at lunch.

I really enjoyed the character development. When I was a girl, I grew up on Nancy Drew--until I found my library had this even older (seeming) series about a girl named Judy Bolton. I enjoyed Judy's mysteries so much more than Nancy's because Judy was believable. She wasn't the perfect at everything character that Nancy always was. Judy made mistakes, and even more importantly, Judy grew.

Palmer's characters aren't one dimensional but come across as flawed human beings, who make mistakes--just as we all do. Junior high is one of the most brutal battlegrounds youth have to survive. I liked how the characters--even the 'villains'--had the ability to show good qualities or at least be worthy of some sympathy by other characters and the reader.

I really enjoyed this book and recommend it.