BE HERE NOW ~ An Auction

June 11, 2012June 10, 20126 Comments

YA writer and lovely blogging friend, Kathy Bradey, is heading up an auction starting this coming Wednesday where you can win query and manuscript critiques. More details will be on her blog, so be sure to visit (and follow!) her for up-to-date info. Here’s a rundown of what the auction is all about:

What is “BE HERE NOW”?

“Be Here Now” is an inspiring documentary about the actor Andy Whitfield, who put the same determination and dedication that he brought to his lead role in the hit television show, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” into fighting life-threatening cancer.

It was Andy’s hope that by opening his story up to a documentary, he might help or inspire others facing similar challenges, while pushing to accelerate the pace of cancer research around the world.

“When Andy was told his lymphoma had returned and that without treatment he had 3 – 6 months to live, he was compelled to share his exploration into the unknown. He selflessly invited a film crew into our lives, who followed us through out the last year of Andy’s magnificent and courageous journey. We now need your support to finish the documentary and fulfill Andy’s legacy.”
~ Vashti Whitfield (http://www.maybemcqueen.com/)

What are “BE HERE NOW” Critiques?

“Be Here Now” needs funding for additional filming and editing, or else the documentary will not be completed. The following writers have come together to offer various manuscript, chapter and query critiques in exchange for your pledge/donation to the “Be Here Now” Kickstarter campaign. Writers participating so far:

E.K. Henry
Debra Driza
Michelle Painchaud
Laura Tims
Kathy Bradey
Mindee Arnett
Melanie Santiago
Angie Spartz
Rachael Allen
Beth Light
Susanne Winnacker
Kaitlin Ward
Jenn Walkup
Kara Taylor
Dawn Rae Miller
Stephanie Kuehn
Rebecca Rogers

How does it work?

• Each critique item is an auction and will have its own post.

• You bid on the critiques by posting in the comment section on Kathy’s blog. (Don’t forget to include your email address in your comment!)

• You may bid as many times as you like.

• The length of the auction will be included in the auction post.

• When the auction is over, the highest bidder is the winner and will be notified by email.

Additional Details

• The minimum bid is $1.00.

• Winners must pledge their winning amount to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/426354716/be-here-now-the-andy-whitfield-story within one week of winning their auction item. Please note: A pledge is not a payment. It is a promise of payment.

• THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!
As per the rules of Kickstarter, you will NOT have to pay any money (even after you have pledged) unless the “Be Here Now” funding goal is met within the specified timeframe. Let me say that again. IF THE FUNDING GOAL IS NOT MET WITHIN THE TIMEFRAME, YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED YOUR PLEDGED AMOUNT. Unfortunately this also means that you will only receive your auction item if the funding goal is met. However, with a funding goal of $200,000 and $37,000 already pledged in 2 days (with 43 days to go), you can make up your own mind whether or not to participate.

• If the funding goal is met, your credit card will be charged on Monday Jul 23, 4:04pm EDT. You must send me the confirmation e-mail sent by Amazon Payments as a record of donation to receive your critique.

• If you would like to pledge without partaking in the auction, do so here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/426354716/be-here-now-the-andy-whitfield-story

The first auction items will be posted on Kathy’s blog on Wednesday, June 13th, 2012. (Sydney, Australia time). You can post any further questions you may have in the comments of Kathy’s blog as well.

Any help in spreading the word (Twitter/Facebook/blogging) about this awesome cause would be greatly appreciated!

🙂

Y is for YA or Bust

April 28, 2012April 28, 201229 Comments

Thursday night I was lucky enough to attend YA or Bust, featuring Gayle Forman (IF I STAY and WHERE SHE WENT), Nina LaCour (HOLD STILL and THE DISENCHANTMENTS), and Stephanie Perkins (ANNA & THE FRENCH KISS and LOLA & THE BOY NEXT DOOR) at Roosevelt High School in Seattle.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, then I don’t have to tell you how much I absolutely adore these authors. If you are new to my blog: I ABSOLUTELY ADORE THESE AUTHORS. Gayle Forman’s If I Stay was the first YA novel that made me think: I want to write a book like THAT. Stephanie Perkins’ Anna and Lola are two of the most perfectly executed YA romances I’ve encountered. And Nina LaCour’s The Disenchantments… Hands down the best book I’ve read this year.

On Thursday night I learned that not only are the three authors of the YA or Bust tour brilliant and talented, but they’re also funny and gracious and delightful, all of which probably goes without saying.

Nina LaCour talking about the research she did while writing THE DISENCHANTMENTS... literal road trips and lots of eighties girl band footage -- Awesome!

Gayle Forman sharing an excerpt from WHERE SHE WENT... I'm about as unemotional a person as they come, but damn it if I didn't have a near-moment while she read aloud from her novel.

A few pieces of takeaway advice shared by the ladies during the panel portion of the evening: Read like a writer; pay attention to your strong reactions (both good and bad), then break down what it was the author did to make you feel the way you felt. Take your time learning craft; knowing how to ice skate isn’t the same as knowing how to throw a Triple Axel — writing a novel is no different. Bird by Bird is the way to go. Understand your characters; get to know them by describing their living space, the things they carry, the way they look, the way they interact. And finally, pay attention to detail, especially during the researching/revising/editing/querying processes.

My good friends (and enthusiastic YA readers!) Kari, Theresa, and me, with Gayle Forman, Nina LaCour, and Stephanie Perkins.

I was thrilled to meet Gayle, Stephanie, and Nina, and I’m grateful to them for sharing their wisdom and experience with readers and writers and fans (and for signing my big ol’ stack of books!). If you’ve slacked on reading any of their novels, please RUN to your nearest bookstore or library and hunt them down. They will change the way you read, and they will change the way you write.

Tell me: What YA novel has changed the way YOU write?

R is for Rock the Drop

April 20, 2012April 20, 201230 Comments

Last week I Rocked the Drop!

I’ve wanted to participate in Rock the Drop since I read a few of my blogging friends’ wrap-ups last year. Here’s the low down, in case you haven’t heard: Readergirlz and Figment united to ROCK THE DROP in honor of Support Teen Lit Day, which was Thursday, April 12th. All participants had to do was print a copy of the bookplate (seen in my sidebar) and insert it into a book (or 10!), then drop said book(s) in public places (park bench, bus seat, restaurant counter, etc…) in communities everywhere. Lucky teens who happened upon the dropped books saw that their finds were part of ROCK THE DROP and scored new reading material. Such a cool idea, right?!

Here are the books I dropped, labeled and ready to go:

Of course I had to tag them:

I left one book at our local bakery:

Two at our local coffee shop:

And finally, I dropped one at the McDonald’s across the street from our town’s high school:

Though my husband said I looked guilty, like I’d just dropped off explosives as I left each location, Rock the Drop was a success on my end, and lots of fun! I sincerely hope that the books I dropped found happy homes with teens who enjoy reading them as I did.

Did you Rock the Drop?

RTW: Book Buying

December 21, 2011December 21, 201150 Comments

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where the ladies at YA Highway post a weekly writing- or reading-related question for participants to respond to on their own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

Today’s Topic: Where do you buy books?

I used to shop at Borders pretty exclusively (how that corporation folded while taking in profit made from my purchases alone, I’ll never understand). Now that Borders has faded into the sunset, though, I’m not picky about where I buy my books: Costco, Walmart, Target (these three are the stores at which most of my impulse book purchases are made), Amazon (I’ll do a big order every few months), my local new-and-used (because I love its ambiance and the luxury of browsing), and Barnes and Noble (though that’s rare because there’s not one nearby).

My only rule is: The place at which I happen upon a book that piques my interest is the place at which I buy it. I would never (NEVER!) peruse a brick-and-mortar indie, take note of titles that interest me, then rush home and make my purchases on Amazon just to save a few bucks. You shouldn’t either. So, so wrong. (Incidentally, I love this post by Rebecca Behrens on the same topic.)

A Good Book, my local new-and-used… Love this store!

Tell me: Where do you buy books? And don’t forget to visit YA Highway to see how others answered this question!

In other fun news, my fellow Bookanista Corrine Jackson has gotten the go-ahead to reveal the cover and summary of her August, 2012 contemporary young adult novel If I Lie. Please do visit Corrine at her blog or Facebook page to learn more about her books and writing, but first… How cool is this cover?

And how fantastic is this summary?

Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town. Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise.

I have to say: I find the premise of this book incredibly intriguing. I’m always down for an emotionally charged, secret-shrouded contemporary, but the MIA bit mentioned in If I Lie‘s summary latches on to my deepest, darkest, military wife fears and won’t let go. I’m desperate to get my hands on this book!

Are you as excited as I am about If I Lie?

RTW: If I were head of curriculum…

November 16, 201129 Comments

Today’s Topic: In high school, teens are made to read the classics – Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Bronte, Dickens – but there are a lot of books out there never taught in schools. So if you had the power to change school curriculums, which books would you be sure high school students were required to read?

First, there are several classics I’d most definitely keep on the list: Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, 1984, The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Diary of Anne Frank, A Separate Peace, Fahrenheit 451… These are all amazing books that (in my opinion) will always be relevant.

More contemporary books I’d add to the list if I were head of curriculum (blurbs from Goodreads):

Looking for Alaska by John Green – Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult – Sterling is an ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens–until the day its complacency is shattered by an act of violence. Josie Cormier, the daughter of the judge sitting on the case, should be the state’s best witness, but she can’t remember what happened before her very own eyes–or can she? As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show–destroying the closest of friendships and families. Nineteen Minutes asks what it means to be different in our society, who has the right to judge someone else, and whether anyone is ever really who they seem to be.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie – With his first foray into teen literature, acclaimed author Sherman Alexie packs a punch in this absorbing novel about a Native American boy searching for a brighter future. At once humorous and stirring, Alexie’s novel follows Junior, a resident of the Spokane reservation who transfers out of the reservation’s school — and into a nearby rich, all-white farm school — in order to nurture his desire to become a cartoonist. Junior encounters resistance there, a backlash at home, and numerous family problems — all the while relaying his thoughts and feelings via amusing descriptions and drawings. Having already garnered a National Book Award for Young Adult Literature, this moving look at race and growing up is definitely one to pick up.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – Set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years, from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding, that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. This is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives, the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness, are inextricable from the history playing out around them. At once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship, it is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love, a stunning accomplishment.

These four books among my favorites. Not only are they highly entertaining, but they’re packed with emotional punch, history, memorable characters, and countless teachable themes. Sure, each and every one would probably end up challenged (they’re all incredibly intense and deal with mature issues), but that’s even more reason to highlight them and expose teenagers to them. The books on MY reading list are sure to open the doors to some important and weighty dialogue.

If you had the power to change high school curriculum, what books would be on YOUR reading list?

Friday Fun – Is time travel the new black? And, Pay It Forward!

October 14, 2011October 14, 201156 Comments

So much to share today! Let’s dive right in, shall we?

First, an interesting trend I’ve noticed of late: Of the eight novels I’ve read since September 1st, FOUR have included an element of time travel. This is a peculiar coincidence because before September 1st, I can’t tell you the last book I picked up that had anything to do with time travel. Also, if you had asked me two months ago if I like stories that utilize time travel as a plot device, I would have said, “Eh.” I certainly don’t seek time travel novels out, but I have enjoyed the ones I’ve read lately (actually, two of the four have been added to my All-Time Favorites list. Huh…).

What do you think of novels that include time travel? Have you noticed them trending the way I have? Any favorite time travel books to recommend?

Speaking of time, it’s been way too long since I’ve posted a Friday Five, and today Paper Hangover, a fantastic group blog offering writing tips, book reviews, weekly blog topics, and teen interviews, has selected a topic I just can’t pass up:

It’s so difficult to choose just five! My childhood was FULL of books (thank you, Mom and Dad :)), and I’ve been an avid reader since the moment I realized that letters strung together on paper could transport me to new and exciting places. The five books listed below stick out in my mind for different reasons–charm, illustrations, descriptions, humor, characters, adventure, timelessness–and between the ages, oh, five and twelve, I read each one repeatedly. (All blurbs are from Goodreads.)

1. Corduroy by Don Freeman – Don Freeman’s classic character, Corduroy, is even more popular today then he was when he first came on the scene over thirty years ago. These favorite titles are ready for another generation of children to love.

2. King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood – In this raucous tale, the Knight, the Duke, the Queen–and eventually the whole court–all try to lure King Bidgood from his cozy bathtub, but he won’t get out! Will anyone be able to solve this problem?

3. The entire Baby-Sitters Club Series by Ann M. Martin (and a long parade of ghostwriters, I assume) – Follows the adventures of Kristy and the other members of the Baby-Sitters Club as they deal with crank calls, uncontrollable two-year-olds, wild pets, and parents who do not always tell the truth.

4. The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen – Since it was first published in 1987, the story of thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson’s survival following a plane crash has become a modern classic. Stranded in the desolate wilderness, Brian uses his instincts and his hatchet to stay alive for fifty-four harrowing days.

5. Just as Long as We’re Together by Judy Blume – Stephanie, 12, is into “hunks” even though she’s never met one herself. But when she starts seventh grade and finds out that she and her best friend, Rachel, aren’t in any of the same classes except gym, Stephanie has more to worry about than boys. A new girl, Alison, moves in; she’s a welcome new friend, but her presence alters the relationship between Steph and Rachel. For the first time, Rachel has secrets from Steph. But worse, Stephanie accidentally learns that her father isn’t in California on business, but that her parents have separated, and that her father has a girlfriend. She even suspects her mother of having a “fling.” The relationships within the story among the three friends, and between Steph and her parents, are complicated, and Blume handles this aspect realistically and with great ease. The story is lively and captures the nutty, poignant world of young teenagers.

Next: Today Alex Cavenaugh and Matt of the QQQE are hosting the Pay It Forward Blogfest! The idea is to introduce your readers to three bloggers you find awesome.

Here’s how it works: In my post, I’ll list, describe, and link to three blogs I enjoy reading, then you can hop around and check out their awesome for yourself. How fun is this idea?! Just so you know, it was incredibly difficult to narrow my list to ONLY three blogs, but in the end I went with three that, when updated, I feel extra excited to read.

1. Alison Miller’s Left Brained by Day; Write Brained–All the Time – Alison is adorable! Her posts (on writing, books, motherhood, and life) are witty, thoughtful, and fun. Her taste in books is quite similar to mine, which makes her reviews over-the-top aMaZiNg!

2. Erin Bowman – Another blogger with fabulous taste in YA books! Erin’s blog is full of style and insight. She consistently shares her experiences with reading and writing, and advice on the publishing process (her debut, The Laicos Project, will be released Winter, 2013… can’t wait!).

3. Tracey Neithercott of Words on Paper – I could include Tracey based on her conception of The Fall Book Club alone, but, she has even more brilliance to share with the blogosphere. Her posts are a sassy combination of smart, sharp, and, clever, and she always takes Road Trip Wednesdays in an enviably unique direction.

And a special mention to agent Vickie Motter of Navigating the Slush Pile, because–hello!–she’s fantastic. Her Wednesday Reads feature is one of my favorites, and she’s posting helpful information on writing, querying, and publishing.

Please do stop by the Pay it Forward Blogfest to check out the many posts, and maybe even participate yourself!

And, since we’re (sort of) on the subject, a time-travel-inspired “Would you rather…?”

If it were safe and feasible and you were given the choice, would you rather travel back in time to the past, or forward to visit the future?

Tragic pick-up line, or totally awesome science geek opener?

Banned Books Week…

September 26, 2011September 26, 201120 Comments

In case you haven’t heard, it’s Banned Books Week. As a writer of young adult fiction that might be considered “edgy” or for an “older teen audience,” this is an issue that hits incredibly close to home.

Books are most often challenged by people and groups who, at their core, have the best of intentions: To protect children from explicit and/or difficult material. Still, censorship in any form is wrong. Parents have the right and responsibility to keep their children from material they deem inappropriate; librarians, teachers, religious organizations, and politicians do not.

On a personal note:

I am not exactly a restrictive parent. Granted, my daughter is only four, but I’ve never been one to keep her from things other parents might find unsavory. I have friends who won’t let their kids see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because “it’s scary.” Yeah… my daughter has watched (and enjoyed) The Walking Dead. In fact, my husband and I used her questions about zombies as a weird sort of teaching moment. Zombies aren’t real… they’re just pretend… those creepers are just regular people wearing crazy make-up.

That said, there are lots (lots!) of things my daughter isn’t ready for. For example, she recently asked me to read her the first Harry Potter book (bless her heart! She’s well aware of how much her mommy loves it!), and I had to explain to her that she’s not old enough for such a story. I don’t doubt that she’d understand the basic good vs. evil concept (she’s seen every Disney movie ever made; heroes and villains are very much a part of her vocabulary), but I’m not ready to expose her to some of Harry‘s darker story lines, particularly the one about his mother sacrificing her life for the love of her child. A little too intense for a four-year-old, I think.

When I am ready to read her Harry Potter, and later, when she’s reading Newbery Honorees and–way down the road–YA fiction, my husband and I intend to use those stories to begin discussions about difficult topics. And why not? Parenting is hard enough without reinventing the wheel. If there’s great literature out there that’ll open up the lines of communication, I intend to use it.

Still, year after year, people and groups continue to challenge books, most often for the following reasons*:

1. The material was considered to be “sexually explicit.”

2. The material contained “offensive language.”

3. The material was “unsuited to any age group.”

2010’s list of Most Challenged Books*:

And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language, racism, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, and sexually explicit
Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, and sexually explicit
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence
Lush, by Natasha Friend
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, and religious viewpoint
Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: homosexuality and sexually explicit
Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: religious viewpoint and violence

And, a few of the Classics that have been challenged at one time or another*: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, Ulysses, by James Joyce, Beloved, by Toni Morrison, The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, and 1984, by George Orwell.

How can we stand up to book challengers?

1. By defending our right to intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. We can talk about the danger of restraining the availability of information in our free society.

2. We can voice the importance of the First Amendment and (especially) the power of literature.

3. We can support librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to who fight to keep “inappropriate” books in library and school collections.

4. We can continue to buy, borrow, loan, read, and recommend banned and challenged books. (Read Twenty Boy Summer! Read Speak! Read To Kill a Mockingbird! Read The Hunger Games! Read The Grapes of Wrath!)

Now, excuse me while I hop down from my soapbox. I want to go read Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

How will you celebrate Banned Books Week?

*Statistics and lists borrowed from the American Library Association’s Banned and Challenged Books page. Please do visit the ALA’s site for more information.

On making it yours…

September 19, 2011September 18, 201120 Comments

You may have seen my tweets about the local writing seminar I attended on Saturday (Sumner, Washington’s Write in the Valley, in case you’re wondering). It was a fun event; small and intimate, with a diverse panel. There were traditionally published authors (Kimberly Derting! Love her books!) and self-published authors, authors of fiction and nonfiction, and a Book Doctor who shared all kinds of useful information.

The audience was full of writers, both starting out and experienced, and some fantastic questions and conversations came up. One topic that seemed to dominate much of the discussion, though, was that of plagiarism. People seemed very afraid of copying another writer’s work (unintentionally, I presume) and getting called out on it down the road. They used gentler words to discuss plagiarism (“borrowing” and “honoring”), but the gist was pretty much the same: How can a writer ensure that their work is original when there’s so much published material already out there?

To be perfectly honest, I’ve never worried about this. There are hundreds of ghost stories on the market, thousands of books set in old houses, innumerable protagonists dealing with the loss of a loved one, countless teens sent to live with relatives, zillions of girls forced to choose between two boys. Yet, I know my story, Where Poppies Bloom, is unique. It’s told from my perspective, with my life experiences to back it up. My characters are original, the setting is my own creation, and my inimitable author voice carries the story. I did the creative work to draft, revise, edit Poppies, and I’m certain that no one else has written (or will write) a story quite like it. Nobody can tell Callie’s story the way I can.

People have been writing stories since they dwelled in caves. To think that you’ve come up with an idea that’s never been done is a little presumptuous and a lot arrogant. My mom and I were just talking about this the other day: She mentioned that every piece of women’s or literary fiction she’s picked up lately has been about a middle-aged, middle-class woman with a cheating husband who has to rebuild her life from scratch. Gosh, I feel like I’ve read that book one or two (or one-hundred) times.

I mean, really… How many fictional YA girls are there out there who have an exceptional ability and are fated to save the world? How many dangerous paranormal boys have we seen fall in love with a Mary Sue? Was Stephenie Meyer the first author to write about vampires? Of course not. Before her was Anne Rice, and before her was Bram Stoker, and before him was John William Polidori. I’m willing to bet every subsequent author drew inspiration from those who came before them. But did they commit an act of plagiarism? No way. They each gave the old vampire tale a spin of their own. Edward Cullen sparkles in the sun… didn’t you hear?

That said, there are only so many basic plots. I’ve found arguments for the idea that there is only one (ONE!) plot with millions of variations. I’ve also seen research that claims there are three (The Basic Patterns of Plot by William Foster-Harris), seven (The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker), twenty (20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them by Ronald Tobias), and thirty-six (Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations by Georges Polti).

We can subscribe to whatever idea of maximum number of basic plots we want. What’s important is that we embrace that fact that, when boiled way down, there are only so many original ideas. Every story, at its very core, can be sorted into one of these: man vs. nature, man vs. man, man vs. the environment, man vs. machines/technology, man vs. the supernatural, man vs. self, or man vs. god/religion. It’s what we DO with the fundamental “plot” we choose that makes our stories innovative and imaginative and memorable and ours.

Tell me… What, in your opinion, makes a story unique?

A Virtual Fall Book Club

August 29, 201114 Comments

Guys! Friend, writer, and blogger Tracey Neithercott has come up with a brilliant idea: A virtual fall book club! From today’s blog post:

So here’s what I’m proposing. A three-month book club. Here’s how it’ll work: We’ll read one book a month for three months. You’ll have about a month to read each so no one feels rushed. At the end of the month, I’ll host a discussion of the book here, complete with comments like OMG THIS IS THE BEST BOOK I’VE EVER READ and SORRY, I FELL ASLEEP AT PAGE FIVE. Each of you can write about the book on your blogs, leaving a link on my post so readers can jump from blog to blog and see everyone’s different take on the book.

Awesome, right? She’s taking suggestions for the first book we’ll read, and we’ll vote to make the final selection in the near future. So, if you’re interested in participating, hop on over to Tracey’s blog and check out her Fall Book Club post!

(Can you tell from the abundance of exclamation points in the this post that I’m super excited about this idea?!)

The Campaign

August 23, 201146 Comments

I recently learned about a very cool blogging opportunity from my friend Alison Miller. It’s the Writers’ Platform Building Campaign, hosted by Rach Writes. The Campaign is cool way for writers and active bloggers to reach out and network with other like-minded people, thus building our own platforms and helping others to build theirs.