Scary and Exciting Deadlines!

Sorry I haven been silent this past week  The reason:  REVISIONS!  They suck up all of my creative energy and this time I have a deadline... like an actual have-to-have-them-back-to-the-editor-by-this-date kind of deadline.  Scary and exciting all at the same time. 

I promise to try and pop in with some fun, albeit short, blog posts these next few weeks.  Until then, sending positive creative energy to all my writing friends!

Cover Reveal for the Lovely and Talented Tressa Messenger

This I Promise You

by Tressa Messenger

This modern day tragedy is a love story in the truest sense.



You only get one first of anything, and no matter the time, or space, or age, you never forget your first love.



When thirteen year old Nicky Moore’s parents decide to buy a small summer beach cottage at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, she thought her life would end. It didn't matter the beauty of the area - land and water as far as the eye could see - she was bound and determined to make her family’s summer vacation as dismal as she felt. That was until she met a boy from down the beach; a beautiful boy, with the most intense brown eyes she had ever seen and a smile that could light the ocean on fire. A summer that Nicky thought was doomed from the start, turned into a summer that she would never forget; one full of firsts. It was impossible for her to know years later how one seemingly little decision could change everything forever, but soon, as an adult, Nicky will find out that everything she once thought were real and the promises once made, were lost in a sea of inner turmoil.

AVAILABLE MAY 17, 2013

Tressa Messenger

Tressa is a North Carolina native, with a passion to share her imagination with the world.  She currently resides in New Bern, North Carolina with her family.  This I Promise You, is a labor of love.  Although the story is fictional, it is loosely based on a relationship she shared with her first love.  It promises to stir emotions from first love, to life lost.  Be sure to add This I Promise You to your TBR list.  

Thoughts and Prayers for Boston

I know today is technically N day for us A-Z challengers, but I am going to deviate from the predetermined posting schedule for today.  My thoughts and prayers go out to all those involved.

My Rather Unattractive But Effective Muse

M is for MUSE

Not the band, although my daughter and her friends did see them this past Friday in Boston and said they were amazing.

Rather, M is for that fictional, often irrational, and usually elusive beast we writers fondly refer to as our Muse.  Here is mine.  He sits on my desk and glares at me.  Notice the stick... that is so he can beat me when I start to slack off.

I have been know to lend him out to CP's that have lost their writing mojo, and so far, I have had no complaints.  So, as ugly as he is, it appears he has his job down pat!

Do you have a physical manifestation of your Muse?  If so, I would love to hear what he/she/it looks like.

A day Late -- L

A day late, but here is my post for L.  And no, L is NOT for late...although that would be appropriate.

L is for my love of long, lyrical sentences and literary fiction. Here's to making sure every word in our prose has meaning!

Teenagers -- Go Figure!

K is for Kids

I love my kids . . .I do.  Honest.  Except two of mine are now teenagers which makes them a little hard to bear most days of the week.  See, they suffer from a chronic illness that I find inflicts a lot of kids their age:  I-hate-you-now-give-me-money-for-the-mall syndrome.  My husband says the cure (for me) is wine; some days I think it is boarding school.

However today, as I curse Uncle Sam for talking MY hard earned money, I have found the silver lining and it's name is DEDUCTION!

No Urban Dictionary Necessary

I didn't have a chance to post yesterday so I am going to toss in two letters today.  I for illness -- simply because one very sick, but very brave kid is the reason you saw no A-X post from me yesterday.

Now onto today's:  J is for Jargon

We want our character's voice  to be authentic, to reflect the era and area they live in, their social position and the hobbies they have.  It is essential an part of character development and what sets our manuscripts apart.  Yet we need to accomplish this without our readers needing to have urban dictionary at the ready for each paragraph they read.  Too little local vernacular and the characters seem dull, fake.  Too much and the reader is pulled from the story as they try to decipher meanings.

Mark Twain's, Huckleberry Finn, is a perfect example of how local vernacular can be weaved into a story to present an authentic voice that enhances rather than detracts for the reader's experience.   I have read this book countless times (it is one of my favorites) and last count, I could identify five distinct dialects --although I am sure there are more; I just haven't made a habit of jotting them down as I read :)  The three most common dialects I identified are the Pike county dialect, the southern, backwoods dialect, and the Missouri slave dialect.  All are distinct, all use slang words not commonly seen today but not once in the dozen of times I have read it have I ever struggled to figure out what the characters were trying to say.  Somehow, Twain makes it work!

"Don't you go about women in that old calico. You do a girl tolerable poor, but you might fool men, maybe. Bless you, child, when you set out to thread a needle, don't hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it. Hold the needle still and poke the thread at it--that's the way a woman most always does, but a man always does 'tother way. And when you throw at a rat or anything hitch yourself up a-tiptoe and fetch your hand up over your head as awkward as you can, and miss your rat about six or seven foot. Throw stiff-armed from the shoulder, like there was a pivot there for it to turn on--like a girl; not from the wrist and elbow, with your arm out to one side, like a boy. And mind you, when a girl tries to catch anything in her lap she throws her knees apart; she don't clap them together the way you did when you catched the lump of lead. Why, I spotted you for a boy when you was threading the needle, and I contrived the other things just to make certain." 
~Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

Hardwired

Very simply H is for HARWIRED . . . the title of mine and Lindsay's next co-authored project.

G is for Goodreads

I am not the best at social networking. I can run a blog, figure out twitter, even started updating my Facebook page, but networks like Pinterest and Tumblr...yeah still trying to figure those out.  There are just so many avenues to connect with and so little time that I find myself picking and choosing where to devote myself.

I discovered Goodreads about a year ago, really started using it a few months back.  I started off with a reader page then moved over to an author page, connecting with people who loved the same authors, read/wrote in the same genre.  It is like one giant book club, sans wine and gossip :)  I can see what my friends are reading and what books are coming out from my favorite authors.  More than once, I have been turned onto a book a friend of mine has listed on their bookshelf or discovered an Indie author I would otherwise have never read.   And the reviews...who doesn't like reading other people's opinions of books, seeing if we connected with the same characters, loved the same scenes.

Here is my Goodreads page. I'd love to connect with you all, read your updates as your rate your current reads and see what books you marked as to-be-read.

FLUX

This is a very simple post, probably the easiest one I will write in this A-Z challenge.

F is for Flux and Brian Farrey -- the imprint and the editor who are taking a chance on me, a debut author, and publishing my YA horror, LEAVING EDEN.

Expectations

First week of the A-Z challenge is drawing to a close and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all the crazy ways my fellow bloggers have incorporated the alphabet into their posts.  Looking froward to the next 21 days of posts.

EXPECTATIONS

I think as writers we are always trying to manage our expectations, keep them in line with an industry where trends are emerging and dying out like seasons. We are all on different, but equally important paths.  Whether we are self-pubbed, Indie, or sitting with a traditional publisher... whether we are querying, editing, or staring at our book on the shelf of Barnes and Nobles our expectations are the same -- for people to love, connect with and understand our writing.  And I truly believe, regardless to where you are on this writing journey, that it is that shared expectation that bonds us together as a writing community.

Damn It All to Hell!

So it is D-day on the A-Z Challenge and I want to talk about profanity in YA.  This is a topic that I've seen go round and round over the years, each writer I know eventually settling into their own comfort level when it comes to the use of four letter words in their manuscripts.  My take on it:

While edgy YA's has profanity; profanity alone does not make a book edgy.   

Let's be honest, spend ten minutes in the cafeteria of your local high school and you will realize that kids swear.  All. The. Time.  Now I have teenagers; do they swear in front of me?  Hell, no.  But if I stand at the top of the basement stairs and listen to them playing x-box live, I'll hear all the colorful ways to use their favorite f-word and then some.

So how does swearing while gaming relate back to to profanity in YA lit? Simple...use it when it is situationally appropriate. My teenagers don't swear in front of me, in front of their teachers, at Church, or any number of other public venues.  But they do swear when they are around their friends. When they angry or frustrated or overwhelmed. When their social filter is down and their emotions are so high that they forget to think before they speak.

So although my YA works aren't loaded down with the f-word, you will find it in there, because at the end of the day, you average teen swears.

C is for Co-author

I wear to two separate writing hats, switching between YA contemporary and YA horror.  It can be challenging at times, but the sense of fulfillment I get from writing each genre is more than worth it. While my YA contemporary has always been a solo venture, my YA horror is the product of two twisted minds coming together to explore the dark and often tormented depths of human mind.  My co-author on that often disturbing journey is the talented Lindsay Currie.

As many of you know, writing can be a very lonely process.  You exist for long periods of time inside your own mind, dreaming up characters and weaving in threads.  Having a co-author allows me to balance that, gives me the freedom to to close in on myself while writing contemporary and retain the human link, the collaboration of another mind if you will, while writing horror.  It is that balance that enables me to write across multiple manuscripts each day.

B -- Beta Readers

I've been asked a few times what the difference is between a Beta Reader and a Critique Partner.  I am not sure of the "official" difference, just my own personal classification.  For me, it's not a complicated distinction, rather a way I classify my readers.

My Beta Readers are usually not authors; they are readers, primarily in my target market, who I ask to review my completed/ edited/ revised manuscript.  I'm solely looking for their opinion on big picture things like characters, believably, did they even like it? I don't beta-read for them and I'm not expecting them to give me a detailed analysis of my manuscript back.  At most, I am looking for a "would have stopped reading at this point" response from them.

My Critique Partners are writers like myself.  Some read chapter by chapter as I write, some read the completed manuscripts. They work/read with me through several revisions and help my plot out the scene that I just can't get to read right.   From them, I am looking for structural points as well as over-all feedback.  Things like plot holes, tensing issues, character inconsistencies, pacing, all the things that make up the bones of my story.

So although both my Beta Readers and Critique Partners serve different purposes in my writing, they are equally valuable.  For those of you looking to connect with fellow writers/ CP's, I have put a few links below to groups I have used.  If you can't find a fit, drop me a line; I am a huge believer in giving back to the writing community and will gladly read for my fellow authors as my time permits :)


YA Stands Beta Community 

Absolute Write Beta Readers and Mentor Forum

Ladies Who Critique

Anchor

Today is the first day of the A- Z challenge. Want to know what this challenge is all about it, here is the link . My theme this year is Path to Publication! I am looking froward to meeting all my fellow A-Z challengers along the road.

Anchor

My path to publication was not short. It was long, and windy, and filled with, what at times seemed like, insurmountable hurdles. Patience, a thick skin, perseverance are all things we talk as aspiring writers, all things that are easier philosophized about than actually done. Without an anchor, without someone to remind me to dig deeper and write harder, I would've given up with the first rejection.

Here are my anchors:

Becky Wallace and Mary Waibel Two of the best CP's the writing community has ever seen and the only two people in the world that have read everything, and I mean everything, I have ever written! They help me plot, understand the darkness and self-doubt that creeps into my writer's mind, and aren't afraid to tell me a scene sucks. Without them, I would not be half the writer I am today.

So who are our anchors in this crazy path to publication? Who keeps you grounded and on track when you want to toss that manuscript out the window and give up?