GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS ROOM, A BLOGTASTIC! NOVEL.

Today's guest blogger is Rose Cooper. You all know the rules by now right? Before reading on you must visit her blog and become a follower.

Back? Excellent. So, Rose is (obviously) the author of GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS ROOM, A BLOGTASTIC! NOVEL. Her novel will be released on January 11, 2011 by Delacorte/Random House. You can Pre-Order it online now at: Amazon or Borders or Barnes & Noble.

I won't go on any longer but just make sure you check Rose out. She has some very cool and quirky artwork, and her blog is a damn fun read! Also, a quick shout out to Vicki Rocho, who introduced me to Rose and talked her into coming on to The QQQE to share her query with us. Yay MissV.

I know it's been a couple of weeks but you guys do remember how this works right? Rose's query will be in black. She has elected a lovely light blue to indicate her own analysis and I think I'll go with ... a sort of magenta for my thoughts, because the pink on Rose's blog IS awesome, but it would be too hard to read.

Take it away Rose:

Thank you so much for the chance to share, Matthew! I chose Rosemary Stimola, who was always at the top of my list. I had queried her in the past but still held out hope. When I came up with the idea for this new book, it happened so quickly (I wrote it in two weeks) and I immediately thought of her and queried her at once.

Dear Rosemary Stimola,

I am seeking representation for my middle grade novel, BATHROOM BLOG.

Very simple and upfront. She knows exactly what I’m querying her about. *Note-this was the title before my editor, and then marketing, made final changes to what is now the current title.

What is said in the Girls Room stays in the Girls Room. Until now. The unspoken law about bathroom gossip has been broken, by none other than 6th grader Sofia Becker. She can’t help but overhear (very carefully) the best kept secret in all of Middlebrook Middle School. And it’s so interesting that she can’t help but blog about it. The gossip gets better as Sofia begins staking out the girls room by spending embarrassing amounts of time in the stall.

I wanted to try to hook the agent with this paragraph, summing it all up without giving boring details, and even gaining some character insight right off the bat. You can already tell what some of the conflict will deal with. And because this is a humorous book, I didn’t want the query to be taken “too seriously.”

Are you surprised that I like Sofia right away? I'm not. Details are vague here, sure, but that's just fine in a query, in fact it's often better. The key here is that I'm sympathizing with her right away, I'm curious what she's discovering, and I'm enjoying how she's going about it. A 6th grader who blogs? How could that not be awesome.

Sofia first uses her pre-blogging notebook to jot down all the juiciness so she won’t forget any single important detail. Even if some of it gets mixed up or embellished a little before it hits the computer screen. After all, that just makes it more interesting, right? I’m incorporating some of the characters voice here, but not going overboard. I didn’t want the info to sound robotic or dull. I wanted it to be personable and try to show some of my character in here too. What Sophia doesn’t anticipate is what to do when she hears gossip about herself. Or her best friend. Or if her notebook falls into the wrong hands. And here’s the main conflict. I never give away how the resolution in a query. That’s left for the synopsis. It should be just enough to leave the agent wanting more, but at the same time knowing you have a strong character, great hook and concept.

Flawed character (willing to exaggerate is plenty of flaw for a middle schooler)? Check. Entertaining voice? Check. Conflict? Check. Tough decisions to be made re: said conflict. Um, yeah ... check.

In BATHROOM BLOG, Sophia’s pre-blogging notebook features all the gossipy details along with humorous sketches and drawings from her point of view. She includes notes to herself, since her brain goes numb when it comes to the super important things, her helpful lists and ranks of classmates, and not to mention the mixed up info she actually puts on her blog. Sofia may take things a bit far, but that doesn’t mean she’ll always learn her lesson. Hmmm, I wonder what’s being said in the Boys Room…

See how I slyly added in the possibility for a sequel without pitching to her that I wanted this to become a series (which was my main intention)? And guess what? My second book in the series will be out 2012—RUMORS FROM THE BOYS ROOM! Normally, I wouldn’t have added this last paragraph to a query, I like it short and simple, but in this case I felt like I need to because I did something I’ve never done before—I drew those sketches and illustrations and included them with the manuscript. I had no idea of knowing how she or any other agent would react to this, so I wanted to add additional info to set this idea up.

Okay, of course that's great news, congrats Rose! But what I like is how smoothly she delivered it in the original query. This kind of tact requires great skill and though it might seem at first as if it was something that might be missed remember that agents are very smart people, but they don't like to be TOLD things outright.

Also I'm sure we've all read not to ever include illustrations with your query. They say the writing must stand on its own, the publisher will choose their own illustrator if they elect to and so on ... but the bottom line is that rules, especially rules about writing, are MEANT to be broken, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Rose has given us an awesome example of that here.

I am a freelance writer and artist with children’s stories that have appeared in Dragonfly Spirit, Whittle Tykes, and Wee Ones. I am published online and in print papers and magazines including Foolish Times, OnTopic Magazine, Cynic Mag, and Sacramento Book Review. I’m an online humor columnist with The NetWits and a previous editor of BellaOnline.

I didn’t have any published books under my belt, and I’m not sure if this even worked, but I thought it might help to show I had some “humor” credentials since I was pitching for a humor kid’s book, even though some of my published articles were non-kid related.

Not being an agent myself it's hard to know exactly how much difference this stuff makes. My best guess is that in this situation it certainly didn't hurt!

BATHROOM BLOG is geared toward the audience of Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and Dear Dumb Diary series. The sketches are similar to those books in the way that they are very simple, neat and clean. And it portrays the fantastic artistic talent of Sofia Becker.

This last paragraph was very important for me. I felt I needed to make the comparison to give her the idea of what she would be looking at, if she requested more. I didn’t want her to expect great works of art, because it was, as the last sentence sums up, the sketches of the main character. And when you see the sketches, you know she’s anything but a fantastic talented artist. So right there, you would know the character is very sarcastic as well.

Love that little bit of snark!

May I send you sample chapters and/or accompanying artwork possibilities for consideration?

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Rose Cooper

I got the first response back from Rosemary in about an hour. She requested the first 15 pages, read it, then later that day asked if she could share it with editors at the Bologna Book Fair. It was hard to wrap my head around. I didn’t even have the rest of the illustrations scanned in, since I wasn’t sure if she would want to see more. She told me when she got back into town (2 looong weeks later) to send her the full ms will all images. I did and she signed me the next day. BUT, if I had been better prepared, I could’ve had an agent with days of my query! So my tip—have confidence in your work and always be prepared no matter what!

Well that probably sounds lighting fast to all of us but of course if you're the one waiting ...

So what do you guys think? I find it really fun and interesting to see the process for a MG novel in which the author IS the illustrator, especially since Rose is just so darn cool.

Do you all have any questions for her? Thoughts or comments?

In the meantime don't forget to visit Rose's blog and become a follower, since if you read this post without doing so first you're fired anyway. Also, she's holding a contest. Well we're sort of holding it together, but as lazy as I am I'm having her do all the work. Yayz!

All you have to do is leave a comment mentioning that you are interested, on my blog or on Rose's (leaving one on both WILL grant you a double entry). She'll have more details on her blog, but since you've already visited you know that. The prize? Oh yeah, contests have prizes. The winner(s) will receive a query critique from Rose!

I'll see if I can talk her into letting me post the critique and add some of my own analysis (or just jokes) once it's done! Huzzah!

Argh!!!

Boy I had a bad day yesterday. I'm actually having a pretty bad week but yesterday takes the cake. My cell phone is basically broken. It is now permanently searching for a signal. I'm not the kind of guy that gives a shit about having a nice phone, but I would love to be able to make calls, or even text.

Anyway, our AT&T U-Verse TV service decided to crap out as well last night. Actually yesterday afternoon. The signal was all choppy and pixelated so I power cycled the receivers but ... nothing. And I would have called them but ...

THEN, as if I needed another problem, Kelly's car stalled on the way to work and I had to go pick her up and it wouldn't start. And I would have called a tow truck but ...

How did she get a hold of me? My daughter's phone, but I couldn't take that with. Well actually I could have, but I didn't think of it. So I was effed.

There are worse things going on too but I can't write about them in public places where the 20 people who read my blog my find out about them.

Well I can't rant much more because I have to write Rose's guest post and that does cheer me up a little ... but I will say:

POOP ON YOU WORLD! I hope the mesh underwear liner of your swim trucks chafes your crotch in a most uncomfortable way today! I hope an ageless and sparkly dirty old man vampire begins to date your daughter! I hope Seth Grahame-Smith writes A Tale of Two Cities Both Called Bikini Bottom next! And we all love it!

Bah humbug.

CassaStar

I hope that most of you know Alex J. Cavanaugh. He's a pretty good buddy of mine but more importantly he's an awesome Sci-Fi writer and a damn decent movie critic to boot. His debut novel CassaStar is coming out quite soon! Here are the details:

CassaStar by Alex J. Cavanaugh
October 19, 2010 Science fiction/adventure/space opera
ISBN 9780981621067 Dancing Lemur Press LLC

Anyway he's holding a contest for a free (signed? did you say signed Alex, I can't remember?) copy of his novel and I would really like to win one. So watch his trailer. Visit his blog. Become a follower and stalk him online as I do. Regret it you will not (I write in Yoda's grammar when I am using an online Jedi Mind trick to force you people into submission).

Recruiting

I don't have anything profound or even mildly entertaining to say today so I am going to ask you all for help. As you can see from my blog subtitle announcement thingy The Amazing Rose Cooper is going to be doing the guest post this Friday. She is totally awesome so make sure you come back to read it.

I've taken the last two weeks off from the Friday guest posts which, let's face it, were really the only worthwhile thing going on around here in the first place. Now I need your help. After Rose I've got nothing. I do have some amazing buds like Bryan Bliss and Shannon Whitney Messenger who have agreed to share their queries with us ... once their agents have decided their stories are no longer TOP SECRET.

So what I want you guys to do, please, is help me scour the blogoshpere. I am looking for writers with awesome queries to share myself but I'm not having much luck of late and I figure with all of you helping we can cast our net that much wider. My good friend Vicki Rocho helped me find Rose, and I'm quite glad she did.

So go out. Read blogs. Find queries you think the world (or at least a couple of my readers) ought to see ... and basically do my job for me. Thanks.

Good Morning Blogosphere

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to find one of my favorite films on TV. Good Morning Vietnam is a great balance between entertainment and thought provoking inspiration. It also includes some great actors like Forrest Whitaker as the bumbling but loyal assistant, J.T. Walsh as the uptight ultra conservative commander, and whether you love or hate Robin Williams, you must admit this is the perfect role for him.

I won't rehash the plot because I'm confident that most of you have probably seen or at least heard of this movie but I will point out why this is a great example of good storytelling:

1) Conflict. The conflict in this film is mostly not the life and death kind. It's not even the dismemberment kind. Adrian Cronauer is an Airmen (this was before the armed forces had a full fledged Air Force) who is transferred to Vietnam to be a radio DJ and entertain the GIs who are fighting the war. The main plot line is the conflict between him and his commanders about what can be said and played on the radio. It's fun, funny and makes for some great comedy moments.

Then there are some points of conflict that act as various subplots. Cronauer is an English teacher for some local South Vietnamese in his spare time and he befriends a young man (who also happens to be the brother of the love interest) who actually turns out to be a member of the Viet-Cong.

There is also the bombing at Cronauer's favorite watering hole Jimmy Wahs and the fact that he is not allowed to report it on the radio because it is "unofficial news".

2) Characters. Cronauer was actually a real person and he probably wasn't quite as entertaining in real life but the character in the film is an easy one to root for as he stands up for the little guy and bucks authority while just trying to do his job.

There are also some great villains in the story. Lt. Steven Hauk is Cronauer's immediate supervisor and he is just begging to be made fun of. He tries to befriend Adrian a little at first but is so inept at running a radio station that he falls apart. Sgt. Major Dickerson (played by J.T. Walsh) is a much more uptight commander and really has it in for Adrian. He tries to shut down his program over and over. Then there is Tuan, Cronauer's student in English and his young friend. Tuan is technically a villain because he is a terrorist and is partly responsible for the bombing at Jimmy Wahs but he is also one of the most perfectly flawed characters ever and he is easy to sympathize with because he is so HUMAN.

I could go on forever with more examples of how this movie rocked at storytelling, even though this tale would not work well as a book, in my opinion, but I'm trying to keep my posts shorter so instead I'll leave you with some great quotes from the film:

Dickerson: This is not military issue, airman. What sort of uniform is that?
Adrian Cronauer: Cretan camouflage sir. If you want to blend in with a bunch of drunken Greeks there's nothing better.
Dickerson: That is humor. I recognize that. I also recognize your brand of soldier.

[imitating Walter Cronkite] Adrian Cronauer: I just want to begin by saying to Roosevelt E. Roosevelt, what it is, what it shall be, what it was. The weather out there today is hot and shitty with continued hot and shitty in the afternoon. Tomorrow a chance of continued crappy with a pissy weather front coming down from the north. Basically, it's hotter than a snake's ass in a wagon rut.

[Lt. Steven Hauk uses Army jargon to refer to a press conference to be given by former Vice-President Nixon] Adrian Cronauer: Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the V.P. is such a V.I.P., shouldn't we keep the P.C. on the Q.T.? 'Cause if it leaks to the V.C. he could end up M.I.A., and then we'd all be put out in K.P.

Adrian Cronauer: Thank you. I think this fall, the discerning GI is gonna be wearing green in the jungle. Why? Because it matches with the green! The leaves, they fall upon the helmets, says yes to me.

Sgt. Major Dickerson: [Pointing to his rank insignia] What does three up and three down mean to you, airman?
Adrian Cronauer: End of an inning?

Adrian Cronauer: If I don't get to my English class, there'll be a lot of people speaking in short choppy sentences.

Adrian Cronauer: James! Nice, shiny green suit. You look like an Oriental leprechaun.

There are several more good ones, of course, but this post has gone on long enough. What did you do this weekend?

Don't Give Up

I got a message from a (then) stranger the other day on Facebook. I wanted to share it with all of you right away but I had to get permission first. I now have it so I am going to share with you a brief story about Adam N. Leonard.

Adam is an aspiring novelist. He is frustrated like I was a few short months ago and like some of you may still be today. Let me share with you the conversation we had via PMs on Facebook. Adam first contacted me on 7/20/10. This is what he said:

Hi Matt,

My name is Adam Leonard; I'm also an aspiring novelist. I'm about ready to throw in the towel, though. I've had several full and partial mss considered, but ultimately all were politely rejected. I really need someone to tell me straight out whether my writing sucks or has any chance of future publication. I wish agents were more brutally honest- that would save a lot of people wasting a LOT of time. Anyway, I was wondering if you could suggest a critique group or service or something to that effect?

Thanks,
Adam Leonard

I replied:

Dude. Wow. I feel you man. I can understand that frustration, I've been there. My opinion is that ANYONE can write a decent book. Shit gets published all the time. I would like to discuss this further with you, but I'm too busy tonight. Tomorrow is my daughter's birthday party. Can I hit you back on Thursday? In the meantime you might want to let me how you found me and why you thought I was the one to ask this question of.

I'm not implying that I'm not. I think I can help, but I do believe things happen for a reason.

Twice:

Yeah, I meant to say "let me know how you found me ..." but I'm a little tipsy.

I was two glasses of Merlot deep. He wrote back later that night:

I have no idea to tell you the truth - I probably saw you on a writer's blog or twitter list or something like that. I just recall you posting stuff about critiquing your work, changing POV, and you seem to know a lot of people in the same boat, at least on your blog.

I'm just trying to get feed back on my work from someone I'm not related to! Know what I mean?! And that doesn't cost me a thousand bucks.

So I told him what I thought:

Well I have several suggestions I could make. First of all you need to have a blog. I was ready to give up 4 months ago when I kept getting nothing but rejections from agents. Now I correspond with published authors almost every day. If you start blogging I can get a lot of people to follow you and connect with you about writing.

Second I can offer to critique your first 15 pages if you will let me blog about our correspondence ... unfortunately I don't have time to read your whole novel, but there are people who do.

You should check the forums on Nathan Bransford's blog to find critique partners who will exchange their entire novel with you.

It could also be your query, but you said you had some partial requests so maybe not.

Would you be open to me blogging about our conversation? I would really like to help out and if I ask some of my readers I bet they will be willing to give you at least a partial critique.

He responded:

Why the hell not. Give me an email address and I'll send you the first 15 pages. Thanks.

And here we are. Do any of you have any advice for Adam that I haven't thought of yet? Is anyone besides me willing to offer to critique his first 15 pages? He hasn't started a blog yet, but I strongly encourage him to. I know you awesome writers will give this guy a hand as long as he agrees not to give up, right?

Writing like a Waterslide

Yesterday we took Madison and several friends to Lake Lanier Islands Waterpark to celebrate her 9th birthday that had occurred on June 21st, Summer Solstice. So yes, we were a month late. She still loved it though so I was glad to see her having a great time.

I will now attempt to compare waterslides and waterparks to writing. It's a stretch and it will be a clumsy comparison, so please bear with me.

The best part about a waterpark is of course the waterslides. And the best waterslides are the long ones, where two of you can ride a tube, careening through tunnels, sloshing side to side and screaming all the way down. You lose yourself in the moment. The world outside the plastic wormhole evaporates into nothing more than a rumor of a distant memory.

This is like writing. Well, it's like writing that first draft of a story that tells itself. I had this kind of experience with WARRIOR-MONKS. It was my first novel length work and I tore through hundreds of thousands of words in a few short months, drunk on the thrill of it.

The worst part about waterparks is the lines. Standing there, inching along, dragging a hot plastic tube beneath your arm. Sweat rolls down your back and drips into your shorts, collecting in your ass crack like some twisted form of Chinese Water Torture. Your belly and back fat collect above your waistband like a swollen muffin top, bared freely for all the world to devour with their beady little eyes. Oh wait, I'm the only grown-up in the line, you say? Thank god.

As much as these lines suck, they are a necessary evil. You must endure them in order to enjoy the slide.

This is like revision, at least for those of you who hate it as much as I do. Part of it is laziness, part of it is hopelessness and part of it is simply fear. Fear that you wrote the best thing you could and can't possibly make it any better. But ... like that line grinding up the steep hill it gets better as you near the end.

First you enter the shade, this is like that moment when you realize that your writing isn't perfect. Typos are one thing, to err is human, but when you first discover that section of awkward phrasing and realize that to remove it altogether would be best, you realize the value of revision for the first time.

Then you reach the middle of the line. All of a sudden you can see the slide and enjoy watching others as they go zipping down the slope. This could be compared to several things but I like these two examples. One is when you discover that a subplot can be explored more thoroughly WITHOUT writing a bunch or extra scenes and beefing up that hated word count. Another is when you find a critique group and suddenly the end is in sight.

I didn't say near. Just in sight.

Finally you reach the top and sink your feet into the cool refreshing water, waiting for the lifeguard to give you the go ahead, and all that toil and endurance becomes a badge of honor.

I haven't actually reached this stage in my writing but I have several friends and readers of this little blog here who have. Finding an agent. Selling that book, or even just knowing that you are finally done with revision. Those of you who have been there please share with us about it in the comments.

Oh and that sunburn you don't feel until you get home and find yourself in agony? That's like getting a rejection letter 3 months after submitting a query and you've already revised your letter 5 times and re-written your novel into a different POV.

Life's a beach.

Hello My (His) Name is Simon

and he likes to do writings!


Simon C. Larter from Constant Revisions is the best ever! He is a silent partner in my crit group which means that he is kind enough to critique OUR work, without expecting us to return the favor because he doesn't have a novel ready right now. How cool is that?

He is also an amazing writer. Check out his blog linked above to find out more but even more so than that I strongly suggest you read some of his fiction here, here, here, and here. I haven't even had time to read all of them, personally, but the two I have perused are AMAZING examples of words used together to form sentences, then assembled into paragraphs. Check them out.

Anyway Simon is also holding a fun little contest. Check the details here. That is all.

Archetypal Tales

Melody brought up a really good point yesterday in the comments about Eragon, and how the setup was such a close copy of Star Wars. Think farm boy (Luke vs. Eragon), lives with relatives who are soon killed, so he is taken under the wing of an old hermit (Ben Kenobi vs. Brom) who soon helps him discover that he has special powers (The Force vs. Magic/The Ancient Language). She's right of course, the beginning of these two tails is painfully similar. The thing is this story is even older than that. Think Frodo, Gandalf/Argorn, and The One Ring. The Ring is more of a burden, of course, but it does have powers.

The point is that this story is what is known as an archetypal tale. Nathan wrote a great post about this a few months ago and I won't be able to articulate this any better than him, so make sure to go here, before or after you read my contribution, either way is fine.

Nathan points out that David and Goliath could fall into this category, and I think he's right, but there are also Greek Myths such as Perseus, or even Homer's Odyssey, which are similar, and there is no question that Siegfried in Wagner's Ring Cycle (akin to Sigurd in Norse Mythology) goes through a similar transformation, having several mentors such as Mime, Alberich and even Odin, at times. There are probably older tales than these that fall into this category but do not spring to mind immediately.

The psychologist Carl Jung even went so far as to outline several major archetypal characters. He wasn't necessarily talking about literature, but they do apply. He named the Wise Old Man or Sage (think Obi-Wan, Gandalf or Brom), the Hero (Luke, Frodo, Eragon), and the Trickster (Loki, R2-D2 - sort of, Murtagh, Gollum/Smeagol) among others.

I for one don't think there is anything wrong with writing novels that fall into these archetypes, after all - all the stories have already been told, but just make sure you change something so that you tell the story in your own way. Melody made a really good point when comparing Eragon to Star Wars yesterday (some of our discussion was by email, so it may not be in the comments) but I for one still enjoyed Eragon, because it evolved into something of its own.

I had planned on discussing this topic further today, but I've been slammed at work and it has now taken me until 11:15 AM just to get this far so I am cutting it short.

Readers - thoughts?

The Parent Conundrum in Children's Literature

My buddy Stephanie, better known as Maybe Genius created an interesting topic on the Bransforums recently. She called the thread something only slightly different from the title of my post, but I have no qualms about ripping her off since I will be linking heavily to her blog and basically announcing how awesome and insightful she is.

She actually covered the topic on her blog in a great post before she started the thread on the forums, and apparently it had been being kicked around the blogoshpere a lot that week. In the thread intro she advised curious readers to check here and here (those are her link suggestions, not mine).

To read the entire thread on Nathan Bransford's forums please visit here. There are several interesting comments or replies to Stephanie's topic but I will just share two of them here. My own:

This whole topic really hits home for me. There are several reasons for this:

- First, I write YA. The MC in my only novel has a dead mom and a dad in prison.
- Second, I'm a father. I'm pretty lucky that my 14 year old daughter still accepts me but there will be a time soon when she simply has to separate herself from mom and dad if she ever hopes to obtain knowledge of self.
- Third my own mom died when I was 11 years old.
- Fourth my dad was a drunk who I didn't see for 6 years when I was a teenager.

I think that the coming of age and expression of independence that is reached by a young person growing into themselves is the key at the heart of most YA archetypal tales. Think Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins and even Eragon.

Does having even one supportive and half way normal parent ruin the drama of such an experience automatically? No, but it is much harder to convey this drastic change in a way that resonates with a stupid parent in the way.

The truth is my own teen years were full of turmoil. I won't go into detail but I did grow up pretty fast. It would actually make a pretty good story.

Are there successful people who grew a lot and whose parents supported them maturely all the way? Sure. Look at a star like Taylor Swift for an example. The problem is, these don't make very entertaining stories. Sure they are touching in a Biography but those stories are about the person's success, or great failure, not about their relationship with their parents. Missing or dysfunctional parents make growing for the kid much harder, and conflict equals drama, which equals entertainment.

Would I like to see variety in YA? Sure. Do I expect a lot of healthy supportive parents to start showing up in novels soon? Hell no. Though it would be nice to see more parents like Curt's dad in Glee.

Feel free to disagree with me, I'd love to hear more thoughts on this.

Nathan himself also shared a reply:

This is such a great thread. I don't have anything too insightful to add to what has been said, but I too have written an absent parent into JACOB WONDERBAR. I come from a stable family with both parents and so it's not based on anything from my real life. It's more of a choice driven, I think, from the fact that when I was young I loved books about kids who were on their own. MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, HATCHET, ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS... you name it. And just about everyone in Roald Dahl's books (except for Charlie) had rotten or dead parents and he was my favorite writer growing up.

I think middle grade especially is a time when you're starting to become conscious of growing up and becoming independent of your parents and genuinely admiring adults who are not your parents, and so an absent parent or parents and surrogate adults is an externalization of that feeling of nascent independence. Just my own theory anyway.

I don't have a whole lot more to add today but I am curious to hear what you guys think. Even those of you who don't write YA or MG books, surely you must have read these kind of stories at one point. Can you think of any examples that go against the grain? Do you have any other insights as to why things are this way?

Please let us know in the comments.

Nothing

I've got no guest post today and I've got nothing else fun or creative to share so I'll just leave you with these:






Now go have a great weekend!

WIP Thursday?

First of all I've been hovering at 249 followers all week! I swear I don't obsess over something as petty as followers (yeah right) but 250 is such a nice, round number. Could someone please go make their family pet a follower of my blog? I don't care if Fido ever comes back to read (but if he does he better comment) or not. Seriously.

Other than that I can't come up with much to say today. Part of the problem is that I drive to work at 5:30 in the morning. It's still quite dark out. And yet, AND YET, by the time I get here I am already sweaty. I hate Georgia Summers. There, I said it.

A couple of you asked last week for an update on WARRIOR-MONKS, my current WIP. So I will give it to you. As you may or may not know the first draft was astronomically long. I managed to cut to 300,000 words (yes new followers, that's correct, no it's not a typo) before I realized it was going to take something more than normal editing to fix it.

So I embarked on a massive re-write from a third person perspective that vibrated somewhere past objective and closer to omniscient, into first person. My novel is essentially YA so first person is rather fitting, drawing the reader into the heart and mind of my MC right away. But even better than that is the fact that first person forces some of the descriptions and scenes into the realm of impossibility. If Lee wasn't there to see them (or dream them, whatever) then they didn't happen.

My crit group and I share a chapter with each other at least once a month but often every three weeks or so. We haven't existed for very long so so far we've only shared two chapters (of my book, others have shorter chapters so they share multiples as long as the word count is fair). The good news is that so far my new, re-written chapters are approximately half the length of the previous ones, and I haven't even gotten to the longest parts yet.

What that means, I hope, is that with only the perspective change the new manuscript will end up somewhere near 150,000 words long. Then with help from Ted, Ben and Simon I can figure out a way to cut another 30,000 words or so. Then I'll have a novel of a length that at least I can dream about getting published.

Wish me luck.

Operation J2tW

I have nothing cool, hilarious or profound to say today so instead I'm going to direct all of you to something that is much more awesome and important than anything I could ever say, too bad it can't be hilarious too, right?

Most of you probably already know but if you don't here it is: My good friend Candace Ganger (at least her blog is normally hilarious) from The Misadventures in Candyland is holding just about the coolest contest ever. Yes the prizes are great and one of them is even a critique and special blog post promoting you from yours truly but the thing that really makes this contest great is the cause it means to support.

The following is from an interview Candace gave to my new bud Rose Cooper, because who can say it better than the lady herself:

Today through July 31st, I'm running the "I Heart Joy Like BR80" contest on my blog, The Misadventures In Candyland. Inspired by New Medicine bassist, Matt Brady (hence the BR80), and his HUGE heart via his work with the non-profit Joy 2 the World, my goal is to raise as much money and awareness.

Joy 2 the World generates micro-loans for the women and girls of Ghana, West Africa to help empower them. It's a huge thing to be able to make something of yourself and take care of your family. And for them, having clean water is even an issue-something a lot of us take for granted.

With my contest, everyone wins and there's FOUR ways to enter: Donate, Create, Buy or Listen. For all the details, on what that means, please go to my blog!

The prizes so far are AMAZING. Aside from Rose's generous donation, Michelle Wolfson, Sean Ferrell, T.H. Mafi and Tawna Fenske just a few of the names contributing. I'll continue to add prizes as they come in, and the more you enter, the more you can win. From gift cards to books to critiques and even a conference call so far.

So please enter! Spread the word! And help make history! If you choose the BUY or the LISTEN options of entering, you don't come out empty handed, and the difference you'll be making in these women's lives is priceless.

Here is a more detailed list of the prizes and who is offering them:

* (5) winners will be invited to attend a private webinar + query, synopsis + 5 page critique with superagent Natalie Fischer
* 30 minute phone call with superagent Michelle Wolfson
* 3 chapter tandem critique by authors Tawna Fenske & Cynthia Reese
* "Lost Dog," "Chasing Smoke" and "Day One" autographed book set donated by author Bill Cameron
* A copy of "NUMB" + 50 page critique by author Sean Ferrell
* A copy edit of your ms by supereditor Gretchen Stelter
* "We Hear the Dead" tee + ms critique by author Dianne Salerni
* Query letter + 3 chapter critique + special pre-order of "Across the Universe" by author Beth Revis
* One of (4) signed prints, (1) signed original, and (2) query critiques donated by author Rose Cooper
* One of (3) $25 Amazon Gift Cards + (1) 10 page critique donated by author T.H. Mafi
* Query, synopsis and 5 page critique donated by author Carrie Harris
* Query critique by author Matthew Rush
* ARC of "Dead Beautiful" by Yvonne Woon donated by Candyland
* MORE PRIZES TO COME!

So obviously this is only my own oversimplified lazy version of an announcement about the coolest thing going on in the blogoshpere but please make sure to visit Candyland in general, but also the specific post about the contest for more info. There are lots of other bloggers talking about this right now as well, so don't feel like you can only get your Joy 2 The World news here.

Go out, spread love, pay it forward, and Babylon shall fall!

Stupid Neologisms

Today's post is just for fun. Here are some terms that I made up or have heard from friends and family that I had to share with you guys just so that I could be random AND stupid. See Faith?

Just kidding. Only some of them are stupid.

Drunkbooking: This is like drunk dialing but instead you post things to facebook that you will end up regretting later.

Redneck Lemonade: We live near Dawsonville GA. Kelly works at the Local Steak House. Redneck Lemonade is when a country bumpkin orders ice water, then asks for a bowl of lemons. They then add all the coffee sugar to turn their beverage into free lemonade.

Reintarnation: This one goes hand in hand with the previous and means coming back to life as a redneck.

Meaniac: This is my nephew's word. I imagine it means a meany who is also a maniac, but then with kids you never know, right?

Hasbro: A hasbro is a friend that has become a frenemy, or even an enemy.

Pokemon: A Jamaican Proctologist.

Frisbeetarianism: This one's not mine but I saw it on the internet somewhere and found it to be just dumb enough to share here. It is the belief that, when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck there.

Sudafed: This is another I stole which is a software program on how to file a civil action against the government.

Mouse Potato: This is basically all of us. Like a couch potato but instead of TV or video games, it's the internet, and blogs.

Adminishpere: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve. This is like at my company, where we have around 50 or so employees. I swear that 25 are Vice Presidents.

D.I.N.K.: A landlord's favorite. This is a couple with Dual Incomes, No Kids.

and the near opposite:

SITCOMs: Single Income, Two (or Three) Children, Oppressive Mortgage.

I thought I had more of these but I'm in a hurry ... so I hope you all enjoyed!

This Website is Under Construction

It's really not of course, blogger does all the work anyway, but I've just always wanted to say that.

The reason I've put it up today is that I'm taking a break. I'm not going on a complete sabbatical, as I will post from time to time, but I'm taking the next two weeks off of my rigorous schedule that has always (never) been laid out ahead of time. I won't be doing Friday guest posts or any serious query posts for the next two weeks. I know, I'm sorry, I'm sure we'll all miss the Friday posts but I didn't have anyone lined up anyway, and it's summer and the posts are not getting the traffic they deserve so we're going to take a break.

In the meantime feel free to volunteer to share a query once we resume, or to suggest someone you know of that you think I should ask. Otherwise feel free to come by from time to time. I will occasionally post random or stupid short little items.

That is all.

SHARDS OF GLASS

Today's guest blogger is Guinevere Robin Rowell from This is Not My Day Job. Please make sure to visit her blog and become a follower!

I'll let her get right to it then, but remember her analysis is in blue and my own stupid thoughts and pointless ramblings will be in red.

Take it away Guin!

The life and death of my query: I spent hours tweaking this query letter until I felt it was perfect. Each sentence has been overanalyzed and re-written constant times with an obsessive precision I usually reserve for separating jelly beans by flavor. I sent the query to ten agents, and received four responses, including one request for a full. My story didn’t make it, but hey, at least I think I learned to write a decent query letter! I wasn’t too disappointed by the rejections, but I realized I needed to revise my novel as thoughtfully as I had the query before I sought representation – it just wasn’t ready yet. Hopefully, I’ll be back on the Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment with a letter that led further someday!

As long as you never give up, I know you will!

Dear (Agent),

April Mitchell killed her father while Mom was at a PTA meeting.

This is actually the first sentence of my novel, too. I felt I had a strong hook for the beginning of the novel – why not get every mile out of that hook possible?

Boy that's good! Like literally laugh out loud good. The thing is this is funny, snarky as hell, but it also has that hint of a dark, sinister side that pretty much covers all the bases. Of course we don't know WHY yet, or even WHAT HAPPENS, but I bet the rest of you want to find out just as badly as I do now!

April is a high school senior when her father, dying of a terminal illness, asks her to assist him and then cover up his suicide. Her lie that he died alone devastates her mother. She seeks comfort from her grief and anger in the oh-so-not-legal arms of her English teacher, destroying her relationships with high school sweetheart and friends (Prom is overrated, anyway).

Fast forward six years – April has become a pathological liar, putting an extra gloss on her already "perfect" life as a shiny blond medical student with a gorgeous boyfriend. But appearances are about to be destroyed, because someone found out about April's role in Daddy's death. Between blackmail threats, an estranged mother who nonetheless sometimes offers April unsolicited advice or pie, her old English teacher's re-entrance into her life, an investigation for life insurance fraud, and April's new sociopathic and bubbly rocker chick arch-enemy, life just got very, very messy (again). But how does April put her life back together – as more than just a lovely façade this time?

I tried to reflect the voice in the novel here by interjecting a little bit of levity into a stream of rather horrid things. The novel cuts back and forth between April in high school and April six years later, but I felt for clarity’s sake – and to keep everything in present tense – it was best to make these two paragraphs chronological.

I really like this concept you've got going here. It's almost like a Jekyll and Hyde of tragedy and comedy. Dark things are happening to April, many through her own fault, but we're hearing about them in a unique and zany way! Sounds fun.

SHARDS OF GLASS is approximately 127,000 words of literary fiction with attitude – a snarky and sassy main character, two charmingly imperfect male leads, vindictive but witty villains, a bank robbery, a kidnapping rescue, and lots of chocolate. This is a novel for the woman who loves both Jane Austen's Emma and Ian Fleming's Bond.

So many things I deliberated over here. Is SHARDS OF GLASS really literary fiction? I won’t be marketing it as such this next go-round, but identifying genre can be tough! I debated the use of “snarky and sassy” (after all, Word spellchecker doesn’t even recognize “snarky”), the chick lit cliché of “lots of chocolate”, and especially the bit about Emma meets Bond. I wanted to indicate there was lots of action in this story– I didn’t want an agent who requested pages to be surprised when April crawls into the second-story window of a house to rescue her kidnapped boyfriend!

I love the bit about Emma vs. Bond, but of course that kind of thing is so subjective.

This novel is vaguely inspired by my own experiences, having lost my father to cancer and being the difficult daughter of a difficult mother (though no patricide or pathological lying in my own past). I have been previously published in Cicada and Windhover.

I am enclosing the first page of my novel below, in the body of my email, as requested on your site. I hope you enjoy reading it! Thank you for your time and consideration,

It’s important to follow whatever that agent’s particular requirements for querying are, and I don’t think it hurts to make it clear that you’ve done so in your query.

Polite and professional. Nicely done Guinevere.

Sincerely,

Guinevere Robin Rowell

So what do you guys think? For a second I was thinking YA, but of course it looks like the bulk of this story takes place after April grows up. I know the prevailing wisdom says it's nearly impossible to publish a debut novel over 120,000 words but I applaud Guin for trying. I for one prefer longer books and have my own very long MS, so there is that!

Please thank her for sharing this with us in the comments and let us know if you have any questions. Thanks for visiting!

Gmail Chat

I just had an awesome/hilarious Gmail chat with my GF/Common law wife and thought I would share it with you guys since I was being so very clever. In it we discuss her mom's request for me to watch my little nephew Bryce this weekend. I don't know why Kelly gives her mom so much static about watching him, she's gonna be working anyway, so it's really up to me, and I LOVE the little dude.

Kelly: did u get my text?

me: nope, what's up?

Kelly: well i just tried to resend it

me: Just got it. It's fine with me but do I have to drop Kylie off on Sat?

Kelly: yes at camp

me: Where is it? Same spot on lake?

Kelly: yep

at 5 pm

but you will still have brycee cuz they are going to some auction...

me: Okay, well that is fine. Why don't you want him coming?

Kelly: but it also means you'll have to get up with him and feed him and keep nesta outside all day long

me: yeah I know.

Kelly: and you won't be able to watch soccer but it is up to you

me: Tell your mom she has to buy me and him and the girls pizza or something

Soccer is not til Sunday.

There is only one game left.

Kelly: the 3rd place game is sat at 2

me: oh yeah, whatever.\

Kelly: k i will tell her that you said its ok then

me: Tell your mom we want good pizza too.

Like Johnny's or Azzurri

Kelly: i am not gonna say that

me: not Papa J's

yes you are

she'll do it

she has no choice

Kelly: i just got in a big ass fight with her i don't even want to talk to her

me: I'll tell her.

Kelly: i am calling her now

me: k

Sent at 11:08 AM on Thursday

me: What's yer mom's email again?

Kelly: i told her and she said she will just talk to us about it later

she is all mad now

not about the pizza thing

me: whatev

Kelly: yer?

me: short for your

Kelly: that is pretty country

i know that

me: it's actually gangster

Kelly: country gangster

me: ghetto redneck

Sent at 11:13 AM on Thursday

Kelly: perfect

Sent at 11:15 AM on Thursday

Sometimes I kill myself. Anyway I though I'd share that just for fun. How's your day going?

Noah Lukeman

Today's post will have to be quick because I am still working on Guinevere's guest post for tomorrow and I need all my free time for that but I just quickly want to say how cool Mr. Lukeman is.

I'm sure you recall I discussed that seemingly strange email that I received from him yesterday. Well I was suspicious enough of it for whatever reason that I replied, asking if it was really him and what the catch was. This is how he responded:

Dear Matthew,

Thank you for writing.

Yes, this is really me. There is no catch: I am just trying to do my best to give back to the writing community, in whatever way I can. I am always happy to give away whatever free material that I can, and to see authors prosper from it. Feel free to let others know.

Best of luck in your writing.

Best wishes,

Noah Lukeman

Sure, it's short and sweet but I checked out all the links he provided yesterday and they are legit, and in fact they are also some very useful resources for us writers and even though he has written several successful books on writing Mr. Lukeman is still giving some of these ones away for free.

I do find myself sometimes wondering how they find the time to do it. I mean people like Nathan Bransford, Kate Shafer Testerman, Kristin Nelson, and of course Noah Lukeman are some of the most successful agents in their industry, reading literally hundreds of thousands of query letters ever year, numerous manuscripts as well, and yet they still find the time to give freely of the knowledge they have worked so long and hard to earn.

I would just like to take the time to say than you.

Any thoughts? Please don't forget to come back tomorrow.

I Won't

I won't gush I swear I won't, but something funny did happen yesterday. I wasn't too worried when I actually wrote yesterday's post (right when I got to work at about 5:50 AM) but then by noon there were only two comments ... and I started trippin!

Go back here and read my comments from yesterday for a little more insight but basically blogger had broken or messed up for whatever reason and the comments simply weren't showing up yet. Then at about 12:30 I realized what a knucklehead I was being when all the comments showed up and everyone basically confirmed that I was acting a fool. It was all pretty silly but I do have to say it feels good to know that people do read and do give a shit. I know I certainly do. So thanks.

Then last night when I got home I found this potentially awesome but initially strange email in my Gmail inbox, from Noah@Lukeman.com:

I thought you might like to know that over the last several months I have made available (and continue to make available) much free information to help the writing community:

* My book, HOW TO WRITE A GREAT QUERY LETTER, is available as a free download at www.writeagreatquery.com

* My blog, ASK A LITERARY AGENT, is filled with valuable advice to help aspiring authors in their careers. Feel free to visit it, and to ask any general questions you may have about writing or publishing www.askaliteraryagent.com

* While there, you can also sign up for my free monthly ezine, which is filled with unique tips for authors.

* I have made available over 100 free pages of excerpts from all of my books (including THE FIRST FIVE PAGES, THE PLOT THICKENS, A DASH OF STYLE and HOW TO LAND (AND KEEP) A LITERARY AGENT) at www.noahlukeman.com

* And feel free to follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/lukemanliterary

Best wishes,

Noah Lukeman

____________________
Noah Lukeman
President
Lukeman Literary Management Ltd

At first it totally looked like spam but after investigating it a bit I think it may be real. The only thing is I have no idea how he got my email address as I don't believe I ever queried him. No matter, I'm going to look into it more today because if it's true that's pretty cool and these may be some great tools for writers. If it's not, whatever.

Has anyone else out there received an email like this?

And in other, totally unrelated news I am currently reading three novels. The first is the Celestine Prophecy, which I first read in the 90's when I was young and impressionable. I realize that originally this book was supposed to forward a kind of new age agenda, but if you take it at face value and just consider it a fictional adventure it's not a bad story.

The second is The Ranger's Apprentice, which my daughter loaned me, and which is a sort of unique blend of high fantasy and young adult. I'm only two chapters in but so far it is pretty good.

Third my colleague at work has loaned me his copy of The Girl Who Played with Fire, Book II of the Millennium Trilogy, which I have blogged about before. I read the excerpt at the end of the first volume, which was chilling, and now, even though I don't know about all the hype connected to these books, I am excited to get into this one.

So there you have it. I'm over my irrational fear and self loathing from yesterday and I promise not to jump to conclusions when blogger breaks down in the future. What's up with you all?

UPDATE EDIT: I looked into the email and it's not spam. Check out some of those links for great writing resources from Noah Lukeman!

Blog Traffic

According to my Google Analytics account visitors to my blog are down 17.49% over the past two weeks as compared to all previous two week periods. Judging from the number of comments on last weeks posts this is no surprise.

You might think I would be upset, and I will admit I'm a little confused, but I expected there to be a period of contraction anyway. I mean I've had over 200 followers for over a month now but rarely do more than 10% of those people leave a comment.

I've actually decided that I'm okay with it. I mean when I first started blogging I was amazed to get even one comment, then Justine and I had a conversation in the comments one day and a friendship was born. It was never about popularity or seeing who could get the most traffic anyway. The important thing to me is the relationships I've built because of this unique venue.

I now correspond daily with other writers, some of them published even, I have a great critique group, and though I'm writing a little less (creatively) than I was before blogging, I'm confident that my writing is now better, which is great.

All that being said, of course I would prefer more traffic to the blog, especially when I am featuring other writers, but if it doesn't happen ... I'm okay with it.

For now those of you who do keep coming back please just remember to be sure to visit this Friday, 7/9, for the week's guest blog post. It will be done by Guinevere from This Is Not My Day Job, so it should be great!

FADING

Today's guest blogger is Stephanie Boman. Please make sure to visit her blog and become a follower. She also has a nice website so stop by there as well if you find the time.

You guys know the drill. Stephanie's thoughts are in blue. Mine are in red. If you haven't figured that (or something like it) by now you may have to check your head.

Take it away Steph!

Thanks, Matt, for giving me a chance to share my query with your readers. I chose Alyssa Reuben of Paradigm to be my agent this past March. This was the second wave of email queries I had sent on this book after a major revision. My original query was not too different, but I did tweak it, and this time I got more requests early on. Whether I did something right or the bad-economy scare was easing up, I'm not sure. I originally sent my query to her colleague, Jason Yarn on December 18, 2009.

I'm sure that even with the economy recovering agents are not offering to rep projects they don't love.

Dear Mr. Yarn,

I am hoping you will be interested in my YA paranormal originally I had called it urban-fantasy, but since it had a ghost element, I decided this was more appropriate. Sometimes it's hard to nail down the exact genre of your novel titled FADING, complete at 56,000 words.

I have this problem big-time. I think many of us do.

What would you do if you had to choose between your best friend and your first love? What if your best friend was dead? I honestly don't know what other people think of this line, but it's my favorite part of my query. I personally think it works well as a hook: short, simple and sums up the major conflict of my book.

High stakes, unique premise. Clearly it worked.

Sixteen-year-old Lovey doesn't know why Celeste has come back as a spirit after being hit and killed by a car, she's just happy to have her BFF again, in whatever form. But a door has been left open to the spirit world, allowing evil wraiths to enter and torment the living. Adding to her turmoil, new guy Troy Armstrong seems to be interested in Lovey, but the closer she gets to him, the more Celeste begins to fade. All the main elements of the story are in this paragraph.

Ooh, that's unique (and troublesome). Looks like Stephanie has set up some great conflict here that certainly seems dramatic. The stakes might not be quite life and death, but they sound close.

Lovey, whose OCD has gotten worse since the accident see how slyly I slipped in another layer of the story? heh heh, has to make a choice, but it will take a strength she's never known before to overcome her guilt and insecurity. Can Lovey sacrifice the one thing that's ever given her a feeling of self-worth in order to set things right?

Smooth.

FADING has been well received on the HarperTeen website for teen literature, "inkpop". I know the opinion of random people doesn't mean a lot at this point, but you may want to check out the enthusiasm of my readers here (link to site where reviews were posted) This was the iffiest part of the whole query. In past queries I NEVER mentioned what Joe Blow thought; I know it's uber-unprofessional. BUT, in this case I thought it was worth the risk, because these were not opinions of people I knew. I put some chapters up on this site, which is run by a reputable publishing house, and the response from teen readers, my target audience, was overwhelming. My book soared in the ranks. I was never told if this did anything to help or hinder my query, however, so I guess I'll never know how foolish or smart it was. Recently, I was one of the top five finalists in a Querytracker.net agent submission contest again, not a big whoopti-do, but I guess I wanted to point out the fact that it was getting attention in the industry. It must have just happened and I guess I was still stoked about it. I probably wouldn't include this if I had it to do over again. Oddly enough, my choice came down to the agent who looked at it from the contest and Alyssa. I have had a short story and poems published in the American River Literary Review la, all the publishing credits I had to my name. Though small, I included it, hoping that the fact that someone thought my writing was publishable would carry some weight (besides vanity presses, of course, who think EVERYONE is publishable). I have included the first chapter in the body of this email. I feel super strongly about this. I think it's important to offer a sample of your writing right up front whenever you can. Unless the guidelines STRICTLY forbid it, and I mean, they explicitly say, "DO NOT include a sample chapter in the body of your query email unless you want to be publicly humiliated on twitter", or they request an initial sample in another form, I would include it. Many times there are no submission guidelines, or if there are, they don't say not to. My thought is that the agent can read it if she wants to, or not, and if it really annoys him/her then I probably wouldn't want to work with them anyway. Thanks for your time, I look forward to hearing from you!

Sorry for the huge block of text guys! But of course Stephanie's real paragraph (sans analysis) is short and her analysis is worth it.

Sincerely,
Stephanie Boman

On December 29th I received:

Dear Ms. Boman,

Thanks for getting in touch with your query. I found your opening interesting and would like to see more (see? that chapter I included in the BODY of the email (never as an attachment) worked!) – I’d appreciate it if you would email me the first 50 pages as an attachment. I look forward to reading.

Best regards,

- Jason Yarn

I sent it to him lickety split and heard from Alyssa on Feb 22:

Dear Ms. Boman:

My colleague, Jason Yarn, passed me your sample of FADING to review and I very much enjoyed it. Would you mind emailing me your complete manuscript?

All best,
Alyssa

Me, later that day (okay, within minutes):

Ms. Reuben,

I am very happy to send along the full manuscript of FADING. I have attached it and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Sincerely,
Stephanie Boman

And on March 2, Alyssa wrote: (note the switch to a first name basis!)

Hi Stephanie:

I would love to have a chat with you about your material. Would you mind passing me your number or you can try me anytime at the number below.

All best,
Alyssa

And it just got better from there. Currently, my book is on submission to editors.

That's great Stephanie! It sounds like representation got worked out for you quickly and no major revisions were necessary. I know I'm looking forward to seeing your book on the shelves.

Well, we certainly wish her the best of luck with getting it sold, don't we guys? So what do you guys think? What was different about Stephanie's query? Why do you think it worked?

Stephanie is unfortunately out of town right now and probably won't respond to any comments today, but I'll leave this up all weekend and she may get a chance to look at it then. Thanks for stopping by!

WriteOnCon

I don't have time to write much today and since my long ass posts this week scared many of you away I won't force it. I need to finish up Stephanie's guest post for tomorrow so make sure to come back for that.

In the meantime all I will point out today is that WriteOnCon registration has begun. If you're interested in a free online Writing Conference with several awesome Published Authors and Industry Professionals please visit WriteOnCon.com and register today!