A Tutorial Over at Project Mayhem

I'm still on hiatus, and I'm getting a lot done, thank you. So I'm not really blogging today, but I did write a post for Project Mayhem that I would appreciate it if you would read. It's called MS Word 2007 - Document Map, a Tutorial, and if you don't know what that is, it might be extremely helpful for you, if you're a writer. If you do know what that is ... well you can just stop by and say hi. Thanks!

High Ate Us

Before you read this, head over to Afterglow Book Reviews, and read my recommendation of Karen Amanda Hooper's Grasping at Eternity.

Back? Okay. I have some announcements.

First, if you're not watching The Newsroom, on HBO, you're missing a great show. I never got into The West Wing when it was on, but I can definitely see why so many people think Aaron Sorkin is a genius.

Second, if you didn't see Roni Loren's post about using photos in your blog posts, go read it, STAT. It's a sad lesson, but an important one all bloggers must learn.

Finally, in more sad news, I'm going to be taking a break from blogging. Lately it's gotten in the way of writing and critiquing I've needed to be doing, and traffic and comments have been down anyway, so it feels right to step back and re-evaluate for a bit.

Don't worry, I'm not quitting, I enjoy it too much for that, but things have gotten so busy at work lately, I really only have time for writing or blogging, and writing has to come first. There is no news on the agent front, so I'm trying to just focus on some projects I have in the pipe, and hopefully things will work themselves out while I'm not worrying about them.

This may only last a week, or it may last a little longer, but you can still look for me at both Project Middle Grade Mayhem and at YA Confidential in the meantime. Otherwise, thanks, as always for your support.

Ray Kolb's Current Query Critiqued

Happy Friday, readers. Today we have Ray's query again, this time with my feedback, in red.

The letter:

Dear Agent,

A PRAYER BEFORE DYING is the story of an ex-priest investigating the murder of the Archbishop who kicked him out of the Church.

I'm not sure you need this little summary. I mean I get it, it does sum up what is obviously an interesting, unique premise pretty well, but you're going to show us all of this in the rest of the query, right? There's not much point in telling us, and then showing us as well, is there?

Former Catholic Priest Simon Voss has a gambling problem that has gotten him into trouble most of his life. I like this. It's a great introduction to an interesting, flawed character, and it tells a lot about what kind of person he is. If you remove that opening paragraph, you can just add a few words to the beginning of this one. After two years, Simon is coming out of a self-imposed exile when the Archbishop who defrocked him is murdered, the body staged like David’s The Death of Marat. The proper title of a painting like this should be italicized just like the title of a published book. Because of their rocky past, Simon is the number one suspect but the brutality and theatricality of the killing suggest someone else. Suggest to who? One thing that I think would help would be to ground your story in a setting. What diocese is this occurring in? Besides Simon, who is investigating? The FBI? The City Police?

I'm nit picking this query, because you've asked for a critique, but I have to say, I think it's already pretty good. You give us an interesting character right up front, and then you toss him into an inciting incident that is full of conflict and potential for high-stakes tension.

Because of his previous experience as an investigator with the military police, Simon is hired by the Church to find the Archbishop’s killer. So he's suspected by the authorities outside the church, but is trusted by the church to investigate anyway? I think that makes for a very cool contradiction, but you could work on clarifying it, because it could be clearer. Simon uncovers several suspects with reason to kill the Archbishop, but it becomes clear someone within the Church is the murderer. As more priests are murdered and their bodies staged like other death paintings, Simon uncovers the Archbishop’s secrets--a lover and a son, and a years-long mission to catch a killer among priests. Um, I can't think of any way to improve on these last two sentences. This is getting very good.

Finding the killer isn’t Simon’s only problem. I want this sentence to have one word that links it to the previous one. Just a "however," or an "although," or something like that. After several violent clashes with a loan shark’s thugs over past-due gambling debts, the loan shark wants Simon dead. I'm not sure exactly what you mean here. The thugs attacked Simon, but he survived and fought back? If not, and they just roughed him up, I'm not sure how that escalates to the shark wanting him dead. Loan shark's usually prefer breaking limbs so debtors can still pay up. And with the police claiming to have evidence linking Simon to the Archbishop’s murder, Simon knows he’s being set up. Ooh, nice twist. I like this.

While avoiding the police and the loan shark’s thugs, Simon must catch the Archbishop's murderer or become the subject of his own death painting. This is a great summary of the overall conflict, but it would be even better if you could add one more sentence about a tough decision Simon has to make. I mean sure, it's already implied, but it would be great if you could make it explicit.

A PRAYER BEFORE DYING is a mystery complete at 95,000 words and the first novel in a projected series. I have had several short stories published, most recently [list of latest publications].

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Ray

Okay. In summary, this query is already very good. I wouldn't change a whole lot. As I said above, I'm nit-picking it, because there is almost always room for improvement, and because you asked for help.

You really don't need to make any major changes. You've got a good sense of character conveyed, you've clearly got a great conflict going on, and even some excellent subplots explained without getting too wordy or going on too long.

The one thing I think you need to focus on is clarifying a couple of points. The two big ones for me are making the contradiction between Simon as a suspect to the authorities and Simon as being trusted by the church clearer, and getting more specific about exactly what goes down with the loan shark's thugs. Finally, it might help to know where this is happening, but it's probably not required.

That's it.

What do you all think? Doesn't this sound like a great read? Is there anything I missed that could help improve this query?

Ray Kolb's Current Query

Today is Ray's current query for his mystery manuscript A PRAYER BEFORE DYING. He doesn't have a blog to link to, but if you have any questions for Ray, you can ask in the comments, and if he doesn't respond there, I'll be sure to email him.

Now, the query:

Dear Agent,

A PRAYER BEFORE DYING is the story of an ex-priest investigating the murder of the Archbishop who kicked him out of the Church.

Simon Voss has a gambling problem that has gotten him into trouble most of his life. After two years, Simon is coming out of a self-imposed exile when the Archbishop who defrocked him is murdered, the body staged like David’s The Death of Marat. Because of their rocky past, Simon is the number one suspect but the brutality and theatricality of the killing suggest someone else.

Because of his previous experience as an investigator with the military police, Simon is hired by the Church to find the Archbishop’s killer. Simon uncovers several suspects with reason to kill the Archbishop, but it becomes clear someone within the Church is the murderer. As more priests are murdered and their bodies staged like other death paintings, Simon uncovers the Archbishop’s secrets--a lover and a son, and a years-long mission to catch a killer among priests.

Finding the killer isn’t Simon’s only problem. After several violent clashes with a loan shark’s thugs over past-due gambling debts, the loan shark wants Simon dead. And with the police claiming to have evidence linking Simon to the Archbishop’s murder, Simon knows he’s being set up.

While avoiding the police and the loan shark’s thugs, Simon must catch the Archbishop's murderer or become the subject of his own death painting.

A PRAYER BEFORE DYING is a mystery complete at 95,000 words and the first novel in a projected series. I have had several short stories published, most recently [list of latest publications].

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Ray

That's it.

Please save your feedback for tomorrow, thank Ray for sharing, and let me know if you have any questions in the comments.

Misha Gericke's Current Query Critiqued

I have a huge meeting with the head of the European division of our client today, which of course they just old me about yesterday. My company is so messed up. I'm very near the bottom of the organizational ladder, and they don't pay me enough for this stuff.

Anyway, I hope I can get this done in time. So, we have Misha's query again today, this time with my feedback, which will be in red.

Now here's the query:

Dear [Insert Agent Name Here]

Callan Blair is adopted into a wealthy family and thinks it’s just her 23rd game of “Happy Family”, except this time she ends up in a different world, triggering events that will lead to a war generations in coming the making?

You do well to start of with your character, but after that, this falls apart. I don't know if this is a cultural thing, but here in the US, "Happy Family," is a dish you can get at Chinese restaurants for dinner. I have no idea what it's supposed to mean in this context. Also, the fact that what I assume is some kind of family board or card game ends up sending her to another world, a world on the brink of war, sounds pretty cool, but it's also incredibly vague. I'm hoping it will be explained in the next 'graph.

All this happens because her bratty adoptive brother, James, doesn’t know Callan’s dark secrets will get her out of his life soon enough without his help. This is also vague, and doesn't make much sense. I can't conceive of how this brother can make a game send his sister to another world, so if you're going to bring it up, you should probably explain how he has that power. So he does the sensible thing and plots her expulsion from Greyston Academy, but fails and Callan gets permission to skip her first day of school. Huh? Not only is this jumping to a whole other conflict, but it also doesn't make sense how the one leads to the other. He plots her expulsion, but fails, which somehow leads to her being allowed to skip? How and why does the first logically progress to the second? She escapes to a nearby castle where she bumps into a group of oddly non-geeky cosplayers who aren’t what they appear to be. Okay, this is another leap of logic for me, but I don't really care. The mention of cosplayers would make this an automatic request for me if I were an agent. I hope it's intended to be funny, because I find it hilarious, in a good way. Turns out they’re a group of highly trained and ferocious warriors on their way home after war. So she sees a group of warriors, and because she's not familiar with the world she's in, she assumes they're cosplaying? I hope that's how it works, because I can't really tell for sure. If that is how it works, it's an awesome scenario, but you could probably make it much clearer in your query. She finds this out the hard way when a very real battle erupts and she gets kidnapped by a psycho with delusions of love and plans to drag her to the continent of Tardith, a place she never knew existed.

Okay. At this point, I have to say, elements of the content are very cool, in the sense that showing up in a new world because of a game sounds really cool, if shocking, and even the basic mention of cosplayers sounds fun and funny, but the structure of this query isn't working for me.

Right now, it's set up like: Random thing A happens, which sounds cool. It's followed by random thing C, which has no logical progression from A, and then suddenly jumps back to random thing B, all of which sound like interesting things to occur in a story, but are vague, don't make much sense, and seem to have little or no connection to each other. I hope that doesn't sound too harsh, but does it make any sense? Of course you don't want to give everything away in a query, but things need to fit together better than this. I realize it's a fantasy world, and so the world doesn't have to be completely logical, but the way things connect to each other has to make sense, and the way one occurrence progresses into another has to be logical.

The “cosplayers”, at this point, the cosplayer thing starts to feel like a gimmick. After seeing them in a real battle, would she not stop thinking of them that way? Or is she a gamer and cosplayer herself, back in the real world, and is therefore obsessed with the concept? led by the most arrogant bastard Callan ever met and his absolutely stunning best friend, rescue her and take her to Nordaine -- a country in Tardith. There, she discovers two things: Her parents both came from this strange world and her mother was a princess in Alfen Cairn, the land of the elves. She wants nothing more than to discover her mother’s secrets and why she kept them, but to do it; Callan has to contend with politics, the elves themselves, an arranged marriage and her own darkest secret. Now this query is starting to get good. When you re-write this, focus on this section, and consider how all these sentences fit together, and lead from one to another. Try to write the rest of your query, especially the beginning, with this same kind of cohesion. For within her lurks an evil so powerful that she could never fight or expel it, and now it’s trying to destroy her life. Vague. On top of it all, she must decide where her loyalties lie in the boiling cauldron of Tardithian politics. And because all that is too easy, her choice will determine the whole continent’s future.

DOORWAYS is a 110(,)000 words YA epic fantasy about five people: Callan who is searching for her place in Tardith, James, who follows her there in search of his redemption, Darrion, who’s fighting to save his leader and so ensure his place on Nordaine’s throne, Gawain, who’ll stop at nothing to help him, and Ward, who is more than just the quiet guy in James’s shadow. I would skip this whole thing. I'm not saying a bunch of POV characters can't work in fantasy, because it does all the time, but it's place is not in the query. You could maybe say the story is told from multiple POVs, but you can't name them all like this. Consider George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. Awesome, crazy story, with tons of POV characters (even in only the first book), right? The query would still be told from Ned Stark's POV. Every story has a main protagonist, and in a query, you should almost always try to stick to one. The book is intended to be the first in a four part series. This is okay, but it might be better worded to just say it has series potential. Agents want a book to stand on its own.

A tiny bit about me: I live in South Africa, using my beautiful view of Table Mountain as inspiration when I write, blog it's okay to put a link here and work as a fresh produce trader/marketer.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Misha Gericke

[contact details here]

All right. Summary. First of all, this sounds like an awesome, epic tale. It's a bit difficult to excavate that information from the way this query currently stands, but I can tell it's there.

As to structure, this query needs some work. The first half in particular. The good news is that it starts to get really good near the end, and the whole final stakes and choice are pretty well executed.

What you need to do is see if you can apply the same methods to your opening hook, and introductory conflict paragraph. Right now, the first five or six things you mention jump from one to another with no sense of being connected, and even though they sound cool, it throws the reader off because he's puzzling over how you got from one to the next, instead of being impressed by how cool the next thing is.

I hope this all makes sense, and helps.

That's it.

What do you all think? Can anyone suggest a better opening hook? Or perhaps think of a way to tie this compelling string of events together better?

Misha Gericke's Current Query

Do you guys all know Misha? She has two blogs, both related to writing. Taking Charge of My Life, and My First Book. They're both worth a look.

Back? Great.

Here's her query:

Dear [Insert Agent Name Here]

Callan Blair is adopted into a wealthy family and thinks it’s just her 23rd game of “Happy Family”, except this time she ends up in a different world, triggering events that will lead to a war generations in coming.

All this happens because her bratty adoptive brother, James, doesn’t know Callan’s dark secrets will get her out of his life soon enough without his help. So he does the sensible thing and plots her expulsion from Greyston Academy, but fails and Callan gets permission to skip her first day of school. She escapes to a nearby castle where she bumps into a group of oddly non-geeky cosplayers who aren’t what they appear to be. Turns out they’re a group of highly trained and ferocious warriors on their way home after war. She finds this out the hard way when a very real battle erupts and she gets kidnapped by a psycho with delusions of love and plans to drag her to the continent of Tardith, a place she never knew existed.

The “cosplayers”, led by the most arrogant bastard Callan ever met and his absolutely stunning best friend, rescue her and take her to Nordaine -- a country in Tardith. There, she discovers two things: Her parents both came from this strange world and her mother was a princess in Alfen Cairn, the land of the elves. She wants nothing more than to discover her mother’s secrets and why she kept them, but to do it; Callan has to contend with politics, the elves themselves, an arranged marriage and her own darkest secret. For within her lurks an evil so powerful that she could never fight or expel it, and now it’s trying to destroy her life. On top of it all, she must decide where her loyalties lie in the boiling cauldron of Tardithian politics. And because all that is too easy, her choice will determine the whole continent’s future.

DOORWAYS is a 110 000 words YA epic fantasy about five people: Callan who is searching for her place in Tardith, James, who follows her there in search of his redemption, Darrion, who’s fighting to save his leader and so ensure his place on Nordaine’s throne, Gawain, who’ll stop at nothing to help him, and Ward, who is more than just the quiet guy in James’s shadow. The book is intended to be the first in a four part series.

A tiny bit about me: I live in South Africa, using my beautiful view of Table Mountain as inspiration when I write, blog and work as a fresh produce trader/marketer.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Misha Gericke

[contact details here]

That's it.

Please save your feedback for tomorrow, and thank Misha for sharing in the comments!

The Kindness Project: Forgiveness

Too often kindness is relegated to a random act performed only when we’re feeling good. But an even greater kindness (to ourselves and others) occurs when we reach out even when we aren't feeling entirely whole . It’s not easy, and no one is perfect. But we’ve decided it’s not impossible to brighten the world one smile, one kind word, one blog post at a time. To that end, a few of us writers have established The Kindness Project, starting with a series of inspirational posts.

If you read this blog a lot, you know that my kid sister got married last week. It was a lovely wedding, and for the most part, a wonderful time. What I didn't tell you is that it was the first time I'd seen my aunt and uncle, and one of my cousins, in twenty years.

I'm not going to go into all the details why, but if you know me well, you can probably guess. Anyway, the point is, it was a difficult reunion for me to face. I stressed about it for months before the trip - pretty much ever since I heard the wedding was going to happen.

The last time I saw these people, I was basically a boy. A lot had changed since then, but the same feelings remained. The same feelings many young people feel toward people in positions of authority over them, whether they are their natural parents or not. Sure, I was much more rebellious than most teenagers, but I had plenty of reason to feel the way I felt.

However, justified or not, my feelings and old resentments, were not going to serve the purpose of the trip: to celebrate my sister's union with the person she'd decided to spend her life with. In other words: it wasn't about me.

So I sent my aunt and uncle an email ahead of time, asking them for forgiveness, and implying I forgave them, without mentioning any specific grievances. I didn't expect a reply, and I didn't get one, but what I did get, which was a nice surprise, was a hug from each of them, when I happened to answer the door at the rental house, when they arrived in town the day before the wedding.

We're not best friends again or anything, but we did agree to start writing to each other, and I hope that things will go well. Even if we didn't always see eye to eye back in the day, there's no denying what they did for my sister, so I made sure to thank them for that when I gave my toast after dinner.

Even if forgiveness isn't going to make a huge difference to the people you need to forgive, sometimes forgiving yourself, or even acknowledging that you need to seek forgiveness, can lift a heavy burden from your shoulders. Letting go can be extremely liberating. I highly recommend it.

NOTE: On another kindness related point, Natalie Aguirre is interviewing one of the kindest bloggers I know today on Literary Rambles. Please stop by, and say hello to Lenny Lee!

Eliana Rojas' Current Query Critiqued

First, if you didn't see the post below this one, last night, please check that out. My kid is finally getting going with her blog, and would love your support!

Now, let's get to work. My feedback for Eliana will be in red.

Here's her query:

Dear Agent,

I am seeking representation you definitely don't need this. Sending a query is automatically seeking representation, so stating the obvious in your query is a waste of precious words. for my young adult superhero story FRAGILE LITTLE THINGS, complete at 60, 000 words. Personally, I recommend leaving the housekeeping until the end. Some agents do like it up front though, so we won't focus on that. When Vannette befriends the ghostly new student, her loved ones are marked as collateral in the hunt that ended her new friend's life.

As far as the second sentence, that's your opening hook. It's not bad, per se, as opening hooks go, but it could definitely be stronger. The most important thing to convey in the opening of a query is a sense of CHARACTER. We need to know who your story is about, and learn enough about what kind of person they are to realize why we should we care whether or not they succeed. Who is Vanette? She must be a teenager, but a 14-year-old is a very different character from a 17-year-old, so be sure to give us her age, as well as describing what kind of person she is before your story begins.

Then, as far as your inciting incident, it's all pretty vague. Is the new student literally a ghost, or just ghostly? Also, I get the impression this story contains a kind of mystery in which Vanette searches for how or what killed her friend, but I can't tell exactly how it relates to her loved ones.

Finishing middle school is harder in practice. Harder than what? At least for eighth grader so she's like 13 or 14? Give us this info right up front. Vannette Lore whose fairytale life was shattered by a car crash. But when she wakes up one night to find a ghost outside her window, protecting the fragile remainders of her life is near impossible. This whole paragraph would actually probably work better as your opening hook. It's still a bit vague (how was her life a fairytale? what are the fragile remains?), but it's better.

She’s always been terrible with manipulating the energy she produces wait. What? I know you said superhero story in the beginning, but this feels like it comes out of left field. Also, it's vague. but she never thought it’d reanimate a spirit or he’d crumble the walls around her heart. Or put her loved ones in danger. This feels a bit like a spaghetti approach. Try to focus on your main conflict, and get specific about exactly what difficulty Vannette must overcome.

The details of Dalton’s Dalton is the ghost? You need to clarify that. past unearthing, unearthing what? The way this is written, the details are the subject of this clause. I think you mean, being unearthed, which is passive voice, but whatever. Vannette has to give up everything that makes her an individual to save the ones she loves. And herself. Get specific. What exactly does she have to give up? What loved ones does she have to save? Obviously someone survived the car crash, but who are they?

I started writing before I knew the whole alphabet thanks to my favorite show, Sailor Moon. My love for superheroes and writing only grew when my father gave me my first laptop. I have another story waiting polish and other ideas asking for attention. You don't need any of this. If you've never been published, simply don't bring it up. Agents sign first time authors all the time, but you don't want to make it obvious this is your first manuscript.

Thank you for your time,

Eliana Rojas

To summarize, this query needs some work. The good news is that it's obvious you have a passion for storytelling, and I think there is probably a great story underneath this query.

Try to focus on the three Cs when you re-write this. Character, Conflict, and Choice. Who is your story about, and why she would care about her? What difficulties does she have to overcome, and what tough decision will she have to make in order to do so?

Finally, try to be as specific as possible. You use a lot of vague phrasing in this query, and that leaves your reader wondering what actually happens in your story, which you don't want.

That's it.

What do you guys think? Anything I missed? Please share your feedback in the comments.

A First Impression at MGM

We interrupt this program to point you to a new post from my daughter. She's super excited to be reading the ARC of Shannon Messenger's debut MG novel, Keeper of the Lost Cities.

Please visit, make sure you're already following, read, and comment. Thanks!

Eliana Rojas' Current Query

It's Thursday, so it's time for another query. I'm not sure if Eliana has a blog, so I'll be back to edit this if I hear back from her.

UPDATE: Here's Eliana's blog - heartofforever.blogspot.com

For now, here's her query:

Dear Agent,

I am seeking representation for my young adult superhero story FRAGILE LITTLE THINGS, complete at 60, 000 words. When Vannette befriends the ghostly new student, her loved ones are marked as collateral in the hunt that ended her new friend's life.

Finishing middle school is harder in practice. At least for eighth grader Vannette Lore whose fairytale life was shattered by a car crash. But when she wakes up one night to find a ghost outside her window, protecting the fragile remainders of her life is near impossible.

She’s always been terrible with manipulating the energy she produces but she never thought it’d reanimate a spirit or he’d crumble the walls around her heart. Or put her loved ones in danger.

The details of Dalton’s past unearthing, Vannette has to give up everything that makes her an individual to save the ones she loves. And herself.

I started writing before I knew the whole alphabet thanks to my favorite show, Sailor Moon. My love for superheroes and writing only grew when my father gave me my first laptop. I have another story waiting polish and other ideas asking for attention.

Thank you for your time,

Eliana Rojas

That's it.

Please save your feedback for tomorrow, and thank Eliana for sharing!

I'm Back

So ... my sister got married. That's us in the photo. Mostly this will be a post of photos. This is where we were:

And this is the building where we had the dance (inside):

I'm not going to go a whole lot more into the wedding, because my family, and my personal, life aren't really the point of this blog.

More to the point of this blog, I met up with a bunch of awesome writers and bloggers on Sunday night at the Cambridge Common Restaurant. Here's the proof:

This is all of us, including my daughter, Middle Grade Madi, who is a HUGE fan of Anna Staniszewski. Anna brought Madi some awesome swag, and we're all looking forward to her next book!

And all of us without my kid, for privacy purposes.

Madi with one of her favorite authors!

Anna, trying her damndest to be as funny as me.

Heather Kelly and I, which reminds how sad I was Jon Arntson (no link, because he's re-focusing) couldn't come.

Me and Kristen Wixted. Woot! I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't even know Kristen lived in the area, until she commented on Sarah's blog, but I'm so glad she came, because she's just as cool as she looks.

Sarah Fine and I. This is a terrible photo. Just look at the next one instead.

Yes. This one. Sarah was the writer I looked forward to meeting most. Not for any weird reasons you might be considering. Mainly, because she has a book coming out soon that looks like it's right up my alley, but also because we correspond a lot, I've looked up to her for a few years, and it's very exciting to see someone you've known since (almost) the beginning, achieving their dreams.

Other than all that nonsense, it was a wonderful trip (in spite of one travel day of horror), and I'm extremely happy for both my family, and for all my writer friends who have great news occurring in their careers. I'll get on some queries tomorrow, but for now, I need to write.

Summer Vacation Blog Hiatus

Grrr. I suppose the Spanish are due congratulations, and my Azzurri got much farther in the tournament than I expected, but still. Grrr.

Now the pundits are having the conversation of whether this Spanish side is the greatest national team in the history of the sport. I don't know about that, but they did trounce us yesterday, even without Villa or Puyol. I don't think there will ever be a team better than the Brazilians of the 70s, but this Spanish side may be a close second. If they win the next World Cup it will be hard to argue.

Anyway, as you probably noticed from the title of this post, I'm going out of town, and the blog will be shut down until at least Wednesday July 11th. Or maybe I'll try to schedule something for Tuesday the 10th, so I can get two queries in that week, we'll see.

In the meantime, since I know you'll miss me, I wanted to point you to some things you can read, in case you haven't had enough of me already. And seriously, there's no need to read all this crap today, just come back if you need a QQQE fix while I'm gone.

Some of you who've known me longer have probably seen a lot of this stuff, but some of my new readers may not have:

Creative Writing:

Lake Argo, a Fantasy/Sci-Fi vignette, which was published in the Vine Leaves Literary Journal Issue One

The Deafening Silence, a bit of Contemporary Flash-Fiction, which was published in the anthology: Literary Foray, from Static Movement Press

Cubic, a Fantasy/Horror short which was published by Underneath the Juniper Tree

Babysat by the Man in the Moon, a Flash-Fiction memoir, which is unpublished

Dragon on my Back, a piece of Horror Flash-Fiction, which was published in the anthology: Literary Foray, from Static Movement Press

Older Interviews and Guest Posts:

Interviewed by Jessica Bell at The Alliterative Allomorph

Interviewed by A.B. Keuser at her self-titled blog

Gender & Publishing, a guest post for Justine Dell

Best Old Posts:

How I showed a Facebook Scammer what's up

Hold on to 16 as Long as You Can, or Why I Write YA

I should probably stop linking now. Even I'm getting bored. But do me a favor, if you see one you've never read, and you want to visit, be sure to follow the blog it's on, and be sure to leave a comment, a few of those posts are hurtin' for comments!

And have a great week and a half, I'll miss you all dearly!