Just Say No

There's this pretty fascinating article making its rounds on Facebook right now. It was actually published a few months ago, so forgive me if you've already read this. Still, it's very timely for me, and it makes a whole heck of a lot of sense. 

Creative People Say No

The author says: "Time is the raw material of creation. Wipe away the magic and myth of creating and all that remains is work: the work of becoming expert through study and practice, the work of finding solutions to problems and problems with those solutions, the work of trial and error, the work of thinking and perfecting, the work of creating. Creating consumes. It is all day, every day. It knows neither weekends nor vacations. It is not when we feel like it. It is habit, compulsion, obsession, vocation. The common thread that links creators is how they spend their time."

I had this whole analysis written up that really sounded more like whining because, at this point in my life, time is just not something I have a lot of. But it would be selfish of me to post, because if your life is anything like mine (and I assume it is), you have every right to whine, too.

The bottom line is: if you're a creative individual (a writer, perhaps?), you have to do your best to prioritize. You have to make time to write and edit and do what's necessary to get the job done, and sometimes that means saying "no."

The article is worth the read, anyway.

Have a great weekend! :-)

~Katie~

Katie Klein is a diehard romantic with a penchant for protagonists who kick butt. Her YA contemporary romance, Cross My Heart, is an Amazon Teen Top 100 Bestseller and was a 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee for Best YA Fiction.

There's this one episode of Saved by the Bell where Jessie Spano freaks out, saying: "No time! There's never any time!" That's what she feels like right now.

You can find her on the web at www.katiekleinbooks.com, http://katiekleinwrites.blogspot.com/, or https://twitter.com/#!/katiekleinbooks.

Mystery vs. Suspense: The 8 Keys

All novels, or rather, all good novels, have elements of mystery and suspense-it's the nature of the beast.

Thanks to Enriquepascal

But, what if you want to write a novel that is considered mystery or suspense? What is the difference between the two?


I read a lot of books about mystery and suspense in order to write my latest novel, Gravediggers.(Due out in Oct. 2013-yay!) After I wrote the first draft, I discovered I wasn't writing a suspense novel like my other books, but instead was writing a mystery and I didn't know how to do it properly. My favorite and most helpful resource by far was How to Write Killer Fiction by C. Wheat.

I've adapted her list of differences between the two for you.

Mystery                                          
1.It's all about the clues-your character needs to sift through the clues to find order.
                                                                     
2.You have suspects and there is only a few-as clues are uncovered the list of suspects narrows.
                                                                
3.You'll write in some red herrings- false leads that take the character away from the truth
                                                             
4.Your "detective" has skills to uncover the "murderer"  
                     
5.Your reader is 2 steps behind the detective-reader doesn't discover who-done-it until the very end
                
6.The question is who killed X?
                               
7.Information is withheld-this creates tension.
                 
8.The satisfaction of reading is intellectual-most emotion is buried and hidden beneath secrets-you, as the reader, want to discover, figure out who did it.

Suspense
1. It's all about surprises-your character is plunged into chaos.

2.There are betrayers and the hero's world gets bigger and more dangerous

3.You have cycles of distrust-characters that the hero trusts turn out to be untrustworthy

4.Your "hero" learns skills he/she needs-the hero must become someone else to prevail

5.Your reader is 2 steps ahead of your character- the reader is yelling at the book-don't go in there! to the main character. They know what awaits the character.

6.The question is whether or not the hero will prevail

7.Information is given that leads the character to his/her next step. It creates anticipation.

8.The satisfaction of reading is emotional-the ups and downs of the main character-readers like to see the struggle.        

Do you like the intellectual nature of the mystery or the emotional roller coaster of suspense? 

Which of the two would you rather write? 


                 

Indie Life- Chanda Hahn

Indie Life is a monthly blog post where we as Indie Authors share a little of our life.

So you want to be an INDIE AUTHOR?

When I typed the very last sentence of my book, I jumped from my computer chair and did a little dance. Yesssss! But now what? I studied the market, found my dream list of agents, wrote personalized query letters for each of them and sat and waited. I queried for a very long time on my first book The Iron Butterfly, but the agents weren't big into YA Epic Fantasy.  I never even dreamed of self publishing until UnEnchanted. 

After I wrote UnEnchanted (which was the third book I wrote total) I was querying to agents and getting manuscript requests. Yesss (Fist pump) but then nothing. Then I noticed there were tv shows that were coming out that were super similar to my idea. Fairy Tales were becoming big. So I self-published just to preserve my copyright. Not to actually become an indie author permanently, but just so I had the copyright. It was cheap and easy.  I still had dreams of getting a publishing deal somewhere. But there was one problem, my book was becoming a success! It was hard after I became Indie to go traditional. I've had agents call me, worked with one even, but by then I was making to much money as an Indie author and the traditional publishing route began to loose it's shine. So now what? Now I have to forge ahead on the route of what it means to be an Indie Author and how it would effect my life. 

So how do I become an Indie author and live this glorious Indie life? I'll try to tell you, I'm not going to tell you how a get rich, become a best selling Indie author overnight, because I can't. Even if you follow every one of the steps below, if you don't have a great book, then you won't sell.  If your book sucks? Well not much I can help you with but if your book has a story, has a voice and has an audience, then I can help you.  But for those that just typed "The End" onto the last page of their book. I may be able to direct you in what steps you need to take. 

I will also encourage any of my fellow Indelibles to open and edit this post and insert their own resources. I don't mind really!

1. Write a GREAT BOOK! Figure that is kinda the point and self explanatory. If your reading this far along in the blog than you probably already wrote one. 

2. Edit your own book. Read your book out load to yourself and try the best you can to catch your own mistakes. Thanks to author Lisa Nowak, I suggest using WORDTALK if you have a PC. And GHOSTREADER if you have a MAC. These program will read your book out loud to you. So you can take notes and make changes on pacing. I tend to skip over my own writing when reading and miss a lot of mistakes.

3. Beta readers- You are not ready for anything until you find beta readers (beta readers are test readers that will read your book and give you their opinion and even help with basic editing). Family and close friends don't count. You can find Beta readers from library groups, writing groups or even a few online. I found my very first Beta Reader Jane Hawkey from Australia. She helped me, a newbie, that had been out of college for 8 years reconnect with basic story telling and editing.  

***(Always research each site yourself before choosing. Some may charge money, some maybe free, some change hands and policies)

Places to find Beta Readers:

PERFECT IMAGINATION (This site keeps going under new management, but I use it)

PASSION & PERFECTION

READ 2 REVIEW

4. Repeat step 2 & 3.

5. Hire an editor. I've been burned by having volunteers/friends edit my book. I've even had fans email volunteering to edit and it doesn't work out. HIRE SOMEONE! (These are editors we've worked with, find the one that works best for you.) It usually runs me around 300-500 to edit my books.

BETHANY KAZMAREK

VICTORY EDITING

INDIE AUTHOR SERVICES

LOOKING GLASS EDITING

6. Hire a graphic designer to make your cover. A cover sells your book. Don't make it yourself. Believe me the readers can always tell. Here are some fab cover artists...in no particular order.

STEVEN NOVAK

ROBIN LUDWIG

MAE I DESIGN

7. Format your ebook, and upload to a publishing platform.   Find the one that is right for you. Each publishing site has different ebook formatting rules and you will have to format your document for each site. They are all listed on the site.

KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING  a.k.a. KDP  (Amazon)

PUBIT soon to be NOOK PRESS  (Barnes & Noble)

KOBO This is the BIG Ereader for Canada

ITUNES (Apple) Kind of a pain to upload to, you need a mac.

SMASHWORDS  If you upload to smashwords and get into the premium catalog, they will distribute to Itunes, BN and KOBO for you. 

8. Wait, I'm stuck on formatting my ebook? Hire an Ebook Formatter.

ALI CROSS (Yes our very own Indelible)

LUCINDA CAMBEL

9. Upload your ebook if you haven't already.

10. Format your book for paperback.

You can use an independent print publishing to make your books into paperbacks. Using Print On Demand. It's cheaper than other paperback distributers.

CREATESPACE

LIGHTNING SOURCE

10. Promote Your work doesn't stop. You need to blog, tweet, facebook and promote your own book. Because you are your own agent. You can do BLOG TOURS. BLOG HOPS and do give aways on your own blog using RAFFLECOPTER But I think going into promoting your book is for a different day and post. We could fill up pages and pages on what to do after you publish. But this is what it takes to become an Indie.

So this is what it takes and all the hard work we do for each and every single book we write. This is the true life of an Indie Author.

CHANDA HAHN
Blog Twitter Facebook Goodreads

Chanda Hahn is the author of the popular Unfortunate Fairy Tale Series which includes UnEnchanted and Fairest which have topped the ebook charts in 5 countries. She also has a passion for writing YA epic fantasy. She's been a children's librarian, children's pastor and costume mascot. She lives in the beautiful but rainy northwest that is Portland Oregon with her husband and twin childre

When the Going Gets Tough . . .

Sometimes the tough drop the ball.

I was supposed to post here today. Technically, it's still "today" (in North America, anyway), but we all know that's not what's meant by "today". My post should have been up in time for early Eastern time readers, and available for all other time zones as they hit the blogosphere.

Thing is, I've been barely keeping my balls in the air lately, so it was inevitable that I drop one of them.

And that's the thing, isn't it? Life isn't always easy. There's that Murphy Law thing, the whole "it pours" bit--you get the picture. And for the entrepreneurial author, life sometimes gets very, very busy.

The trick, I think, is to adjust the speed with which you're juggling, to adapt for the dropped ball, and keep on going. This isn't a business for pansies. But it is a business for humans and humans make mistakes.

Do I wish I'd remembered to post on time? Of course! I'm embarrassed and feel a lot like I've let my fellow Indies down. But really? If I had to drop one of my balls, this was the best one to go. It's soft and bouncy and very forgiving. Some of the other balls I have up in the air are as fine as Christmas ornaments and if I drop one of those it'll make quite the mess!

So be forgiving of yourself, my friends. Stop and pick up the ball if you need to, but get right back at it. After all, you're tough. So keep going!

*no actual colloquialisms were harmed in the writing of this post.

Ali Cross is the sensei of the writer's dojo where she holds a black belt in awesome. She lives in Utah with her kickin' husband, two sparring sons, one ninja cat, one sumo dog and four zen turtles.

She's the author the the young adult paranormal romance Desolation series, and the middle grade sci fi adventure, Jump Boys. Find Ali online: Blog |Facebook | Twitter

Creating Characters with Character

Have you seen this? Sponsored by Dove, women describe themselves to a forensic artist and the results are ridiculously different from how others see them. Notice when others recount the person, they often add words about the level of warmth and friendliness in their features. How they looked to others wasn't just about their appearance, but about the soul glowing from within. The video got me to thinking, do my characters know themselves the way others see them?

A character's character, how they are perceived by others in a story, has more to do with who they are than what they look like. When I'm writing in third person, I've got some wiggle room.  I can describe a character from the point of view of someone else.  But in first person?

Here are 5 ways to show character that have nothing to do with looking in the mirror.

1. Give them an animal.  You've probably heard that people who abuse animals are more likely to abuse other humans.  I think the reverse is true as well. If your heroine always brings her horse a treat before each ride or considers her dog to be her best friend, it shows gentleness and charity. What would it tell your reader if your character was vegetarian?                                                      


2. Lead them into temptation. How a character copes with temptation says a lot about them as a person. Does your teen protagonist tell the boy she's with she doesn't want to drink, make an excuse to leave the party when her cup is still full, or go along and guzzle it down? 


3. Send them shopping. Instead of describing a character's hair and clothing, send her shopping with a friend. It's not about what she buys or doesn't buy, it's about why.  Maybe she can afford those $150 Ralph Lauren shades but if she passes them over to save the dough for a special trip with her autistic sister, she's going to look a lot different to your reader.


4. Get physical. It could be a fight or a love scene, but a physical interaction with another character tells us a lot about them in relation to others. For example, "My fist looked like a child's as I swung at his face, tiny and helpless against the tower of him." In that one sentence, we know she's petite... and a force to be reckoned with.


5. Give them a spiritual life. Its not about religion. Whether your character prays, meditates, lights a candle, or something else, a spiritual life deepens character.  It's not just what she does but when she does it.  Does she only pray when she's in trouble? Or every day?

I don't know about you but as I re-read these five, certain physical images pop into my mind with each scenario.  As an author, I'd much prefer for the reader to fill in the gaps based on clues like these rather than a direct, mirror description.  Just like the Dove experiment, chances are the picture they create will be even better than the one in my mind.

__________________

G.P. Ching is the author of The Soulkeepers Series, Grounded, and a variety of short fiction. She specializes in cross-genre paranormal stories, loves old cemeteries, and enjoys a good ghost tour. She lives in central Illinois with her husband, two children, a brittany spaniel named Riptide Jack, and a very demanding guinea pig. 

Photo Teasers, or How to Feed Your Stock Art Addiction

I have an addiction to art.

I spend hours on stock art sites looking for just the right pictures for covers.

At least that's my excuse... and I have some cool covers to show for it!

BUT NOW I have an even better use for all that stock art I've been storing up...

PICTURE TEASERS*

*credit to Chelsea Cameron for the idea

 "What's your life worth on the open market?"

Delirium (Debt Collector 1) by @susankayequinn http://bit.ly/DeliriumDC1

I'm hoping that these picture teasers will be fun enough for fans to share!

*pin to Pinterest*

*post to Facebook*

*tweet*

In the meantime, I'll be over at bigstockphoto.com downloading more...

Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the bestselling YA SF Mindjack series. Her new Debt Collector serial is her more grown-up SF that she likes to call future-noir. Her steampunk fantasy romance is temporarily on hold while she madly writes episodes to keep Lirium (the titular Debt Collector) happy. Plus she needs to leave time to play on Facebook. Susan has a lot of degrees in engineering, which come in handy when dreaming up dangerous mind powers, future dystopias, and slightly plausible steampunk inventions. Mostly she sits around in her pajamas in awe that she gets make stuff up full-time. You can find her at www.susankayequinn.com

What's your life worth on the open market? A debt collector can tell you precisely. Delirium (Debt Collector 1) is now available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Kobo, iTunes, Smashwords. See the Debt Collector website to check all the latest episode releases and goings on in the Debt Collector world.