Z = The Final Step of Writing a Novel and the End of the A to Z Challenge

Z is for the end, both of writing a novel and this blogging challenge. It's been an interesting ride this month (and this is the only time I've ever completed the challenge). Camp NaNo ended up derailed so I wrote less than 1/10 of what I had planned to. But at least I'm excited about going back to my novel again so the end should be written soon.

I hope all of you have enjoyed reading the various posts linked throughout the month. And the giveaways have been fun (you've got until midnight to enter for Angel Eyes). I'll probably not be quite as active over the next two months due to all the logistics of moving to another country to start my job, but that's life.

Enjoy the last article and please do click through to M J Wright's website to read the rest of the article.

One of my favourite writing tips is so well known it barely needs repeating. When you’ve written your first draft manuscript, stick it in a (metaphorical) drawer for a month and don’t look at it.

The idea is that you come back with fresh eyes.

The other problem is that it’s too easy to re-awaken the old ideas – to lock back into the old thinking. Sometimes the ‘novelty factor’ lasts about a page and a half. Sometimes those old thoughts can creep up on you without you even really noticing.It sort of works, but like all cliches there are two problems with the idea. One is getting that month, especially if there is a deadline and the work has to be juggled between half a dozen other writing projects, along with all the impecunious demands of everyday life.

But there are ways around it. Try this. Print the manuscript off and look at isolated pages, making sure you don’t start with the first one.

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Y = A Map to the Land of YA Publishing

The people over at YA Highway have created an interesting visual map of the publishing process complete with links to articles on various subjects. Click the image below to view the full map on their website.

Click here to enter the Angel Eyes Giveaway! Only one day left!

X = 7 Reasons Agents Might Give Your First Chapter an X

The dreaded first chapter, or even the first paragraph of your novel. That's all the time you have to impress an agent into asking for more. So here are some tips on what not to do, unless you like seeing how fast an agent can lose interest in your novel.

Previously, I attended the Writer Idol Event at Boston Book Fest. It was not for the faint of heart, but for those willing to brave public ridicule, it was a great way to get helpful feedback.

(How to Support an Author’s New Book: 11 Ways For You to Help)

This is how it worked: An actress picked manuscripts at random and read the first 250 words out loud for the panel and the audience. If at any point a panelist felt he would stop reading, he raised his hand. The actress read until two or more panelists raised their hands, at which point the panel discussed the reasons they stopped, or in cases where the actress read to the end, they discussed what worked. Helene Atwan (Director of Beacon Press) and agents Esmond Harmsworth, Eve Bridburg, and Janet Silver (all from Zachary Shuster Harmsworth) served on the panel.

These panelists were tough! I’d say less than 25% made it to the end of the passage. Here are some of the common reasons panelists stopped reading.

1. Generic beginnings: Stories that opened with the date or the weather didn’t really inspire interest. According to Harmsworth, you are only allowed to start with the weather if you’re writing a book about meteorologists. Otherwise, pick something more creative.

2. Slow beginnings: Some manuscripts started with too much pedestrian detail (characters washing dishes, etc) or unnecessary background information. 

Click here to read tips 3-7 at Writer's Digest.

Click here to enter for a chance of winning Angel Eyes until the 30th!

W = 13 Ways to Scare People Away from your Website

Website building is not my forte, nor that of most writers. We try many things to create a website which looks good but keeps people coming back. However, here are 13 ways to make sure no one ever comes back, courtesy of Author Media.

This can be a scary time of the year.

Here at Author Media, there is nothing that scares us more than bad author website design.
Here are 13 proven ways to scare people away from your author website.

1. Music

Many people surf the web while listening to Pandora, Spotify or iTunes in the background. If your website starts music when someone arrives, it will create chaos in their headphones as two songs play at the same time. For bonus points, hide the “pause” button so the only way to stop the music is to leave the website.
To turn your website into a horror show, make the song restart every time users load a new page. This way you can bludgeon your readers over the head with the first few bars of the song.

2. Focus on Yourself

People don’t care about you, they care about them. So, focus on yourself. You are the author after all. Fill the website with photos of you and your family. Talk about personal details of your life that have nothing to do with your book. Blog about irrelevant topics. Avoid giving away any helpful information.
Avoid the things in our list of what readers want from your author website.

Click here to read tips 3-13 at Author Media.

Click here to enter the Angel Eyes Giveaway!

V = Victory at Last!

Well, at least for one writer. His story and perseverance are amazing! Most people would have given up long before then.

If your novel has been banging on agents’ doors for years and got nowhere take heart from Berwick Coates, an English author who this week nailed down a $130,000 deal and a two-book contract at age 80.

His historical thriller The Last Conquest was snapped up by one of the world’s largest publishers Simon & Schuster after Coates had failed to impress agents with several previous novels. “They were clearly not being read,” he said.

A retired history teacher, Coates succeeded only when he caught the eye of agent Jim Gill, who was recommended to him by a fellow author. Now Coates is finishing his second novel The Last Viking and can hope to see both in book stores at an age when most authors might have given up or resorted to vanity publishing.

Click here to continue reading his heartening success story at The Writing Village.

Click here to enter for a copy of Angel Eyes!

U = US Tax Treaties for Writers

Taxes. Yes, even writers have to deal with them and they only get more complicated once you throw living out of country into the mix. I've been sniffing around for information related to this due to my going overseas soon and I thought I'd share the information I found with you, my readers.

Thank you Stina for allowing me to take over your blog today. I hope that I may bring some knowledge to those who plan on doing business in the U.S., but may reside elsewhere.

When I was paired with an illustrator on an anthology project, I had no clue where Maldives was located, but I knew I needed to work with Rimi no matter the consequences. Working with others who reside outside of the U.S. requires knowledge of certain tax laws.

Are you thinking of publishing in the U.S., but live in another country? Maybe you are working with someone else in another country on a collaboration, perhaps even a business partnership? Regardless of whether you plan on self-publishing or going the traditional route, if your work will be published in the U.S., you’ll need to understand certain aspects of our tax laws.

The U.S. government requires companies to withhold 30% of royalties made in the U.S. and paid to entities residing in other countries…unless the U.S. has a tax treaty with your country. 

Click here to continue reading at Stina Lindenblatt's blog.

Click here to enter for a chance of winning a copy of Angel Eyes!

T = Twitter: How on Earth do you Become Successful?

Twitter is a powerful social media tool for sharing your writing (you might even have come to this post via my tweet about it) but it can be difficult to figure out how to grow your following. Here is one writer's experience on how to attain a massive following.

I wasn’t planning to write this post. It more came to be as a matter of chance. It all started a few days ago when author, editor and blogger, C.S. Lakin (@cslakin and @livewritethrive on Twitter), contacted me via my website to ask, “How did you get so many followers?” As I’d done in the past with a few others who asked, I emailed C.S. and explained my process. In response she came back, suggesting this should be a blog post and even offered to put my email into blog format, leaving me with only whatever fine tuning I desired. I said, “Cool,” she said, “Here you go,” and voilà, here it is, I’m coming clean about my Twitter success.

When I joined Twitter in August 2009, I went with the simple logic that the more followers I had, the more people would learn about the thrillers I wrote. With that in mind, I got busy with an easy process requiring little account management time which I’ll now share with you. The basic plan was to follow people, some of whom would follow back. Those who didn’t, I would unfollow. All I did was repeat this process over and over again. It obviously works because I now have almost 250,000 followers.

Click here to continue reading at Live, Write, Thrive.

Click here to enter for your chance at winning a copy of Angel Eyes!

S = Scene Writing

As a special treat, here are two articles (instead of one). One on scene transitions and the other on writing dialogue within a scene. Make sure to follow through the link to the whole article and maybe comment saying where you came from on their site? We writers do love comments.

As writers we spend a lot of time talking about plot, character, setting and description. We learn how to put all of those together into scenes and how to show character motivation with sequel. But then when it comes time to stitch it all together we often stutter… uh… okay… and then after that some other stuff happened and now I’m going to tell you about it.

Okay, hopefully, your transitions aren’t that bad, but frequently writers do spend way too much time on the stitches when they should be kept clean and simple.

How to do that?

Click here to read the rest at The How to Write Shop.

A writer friend had feedback which said that her novel suffered from "ping-pong dialogue". Had any of us heard of this particular ailment, she asked here. None of us had, but the example she posted did suffer a bit from something I've seen a lot over the years, and no doubt I've been guilty of too; in fact, I'm rather grateful to have a name for it. It's not that the dialogue in itself is badly written; rather, it's a combination of things. Have a look at this:

"How long can you stay?" he asked.
"My bus doesn't go till six," she said. She slung her jacket over the back of a chair.
"Would you like some coffee?"
"Only if you've got decaff, thanks."
"Yes, I've got some." He put the kettle on to boil.
"You've cut back the hedge," she said.
"It got shredded in that storm. Had to do something," he replied.
"Ah, yes."
Roly began to scratch at the back door and whine.
"I'll just let him out."
"Does he still come upstairs and bark if you stay in the bath too long?"
"No. He only did that to you." The kettle clicked off.
"No milk, please."
"Right you are."
He put the mug on the table.
"Did you get my letter?"

Now, there are various things going on here, all of which could be contributing to the ping-pong effect. First, it's not actually that briskly alternating lines of dialogue are a Bad Thing, but more that there isn't enough else going on. The dialogue has got detached from the other kinds of action in the scene: we've got speech-action, but not much physical action, or mental action and so on. 

Click here to continue reading at This Itch of Writing.

Remember that I'm giving away a copy of Angel Eyes! Click here to enter until the 30th!

R = Random House Contract Missteps

We all know about Random House, one of the huge publishing companies which puts out a huge number of books each year through all it's various imprints. But it looks like Random House is trying out a new tactic: mimicking vanity presses. And this is not good news.

This week, Random House generated controversy among writers over the terms of their contracts for two of their new digital-only imprints: Hydra, which focuses on science-fiction/fantasy genre and Alibi, which focuses on the mystery and thriller genres. These imprints were launched last November, along with Flirt, which publishes college-age stories. Loveswept, an ebook-only romance imprint, was already in existence.

The controversy became more widely discussed when leading professional organization Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) declared that works published by Hydra (which is not to be confused with Hydra Publications) would not be considered eligible as credentials for membership.

Click here to continue reading at Huffington Post.

Click here to enter the Angel Eyes giveaway!

Q = Rejecting Agents You've Queried

Is it even possible to think of such a thing happening as having to reject an agent? It seems like it's usually the other way around with the rejection letters streaming in. But, once you have an offer of representation you do have to let the other agents know. Here's how you can do it politely.

Congratulations! You’ve received an offer of representation!!!

But there are more agents considering. Possibly agents you submitted to at midnight on a Friday after a glass of wine or two and noticed your rejection pile was growing and your submission list thinning and good GOD you need to GET IT OUT THERE MORE AND INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF AN OFFER JUST TO KEEP UP THE HOPE….!

I.E: definitely not dream agent material, but worthy of settling for.

Yeah, yeah; maybe I should have rose-colored glasses on here and say that EVERY agent an author submits to is TOTALLY his/her dream agent but…I know better. And it’s ok; this business is so subjective, just as not every author is right for every agent, not every agent is right for every author. Doesn’t make either party less awesome – just not the best professional fit.

So what do you do when you receive an offer and (as you should) want to be fair and notify any other considering agents to give them a chance…but don’t necessarily WANT to give some of them that chance, or KNOW that even if one of those agents you were being fair to offered, you wouldn’t go with them?

Maybe this is just a problem in MY eyes; I certainly can’t fault an author for wanting ANYONE to read his/her manuscript and fawn all over it, even if s/he doesn’t really intend to go with that agent. But truly, it’s a waste of time; and it really sucks to let an agent possibly fall in love with your manuscript if s/he doesn’t stand a chance.

So what’s the best approach?

Click here to continue reading at Adventures in Agentland.

Click here to enter the giveaway for Angel Eyes!

P = How Not to Kill Your Story in the Opening Paragraphs

The beginning of a story or novel is one of the hardest parts to get right. I know I've agonized over many a beginning. Did it have the right punch? Was the hook sufficient or even present? But here are a few tips to help you along the way (make sure to click through to whole article to read the rest of the tips).

Ever driven a car round a bend and seen another one heading straight at you? At 60mph? It happened to me last week. I swerved into a ditch and it clipped my wing mirror as it bulleted past. Not a good way to start a day but a great place to begin a story…

Why do so many writers get their opening paragraphs wrong?

Here are five big mistakes new authors make - and how to avoid them - based on my experience of judging 3500+ entries to date in the Writers’ Village story contest.

Mistake #1: A start that has too many characters

Good opening passages typically involve just one or two main players. Don’t bring in a cast of thousands or tell the whole history of Renaissance Florence before the action begins.

The UK crime writer Ruth Rendell typically has more than 30 named characters in every novel. Too many? Yet her novels are successful. Why? She limits her characters to just three per scene and makes each character highly memorable the moment she introduces them.

Slip in your minor characters and details of back story naturally, a fragment here and there, as the story proceeds. Limit the cast list at the start!

Click here to continue reading at Writer's Village. 

Click here to enter the giveaway for Angel Eyes until the 30th!

M = Military Mistakes and a New Giveaway!

Hello and welcome back to the third week of the A to Z challenge! I suppose you'd like to know who won the book giveaway? The lucky gal's name is Lia and she won by becoming my 50th blog follower! Congrats, Lia!

But, onto the next giveaway. The next one you say? Yes, because I planned two back to back. This time you could win the fabulous "Angel Eyes" by Shannon Dittemore! Again, I reviewed it this past January. Click here for my review. Scroll down to the bottom to enter the giveaway and to read the blurb. You've got until the 30th to enter (and there are daily entries too!).

And on with the post of the day: the letter M!

This article is by Joseph Zieja.

I’m an officer in the United States Air Force, and I’ve been wearing the uniform for ten years.  I also write.

I’ve had pieces appear in Daily Science Fiction and some other anthologies across the web and in print.  So I have a tiny bit of writing clout to back up my military experience, and you can lean on that when I tell you that there are a lot of mistakes in the way that writers portray the military in their fiction.

I therefore present to you the Top 5 Biggest Military Mistakes in Fiction, According to Joe Zieja.  I’ll try my best to keep it­ to speculative fiction, since I know that’s who my audience is, but these mistakes extend to all genres.

One last warning:  I’m from New Jersey.  Hold on to your self-esteem.

1. Yes, You Should Have Thought of That Before:  Misuse of Technology

No one is as desperately misled as Hollywood when it comes to military technology.  Movies take a lot of poetic license, but they’re expected to sacrifice accuracy for the sake of explosions and entertainment.  But seriously, if you can’t make a cell phone call while driving in the Lincoln Tunnel, you probably can’t fly a satellite-controlled airplane through it.  That’s all I’m saying.

Click here to continue reading at MythicScribes.com.


"Once you've seen, you can't unsee. 

"Brielle went to the city to chase her dreams and found tragedy instead. She's come home to shabby little Stratus, Oregon, to live with her grief and her guilt . . . and the incredible, numbing cold she can't seem to shake.

Jake's the new guy at school. The boy next door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for corruption.

Something more than fate has brought them together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what's going to happen. And a beauty brighter than either Brielle or Jake has ever seen is calling them to join the battle in a realm where all human choices start.

A realm that only angels and demons-and Brielle-can perceive."

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Angel Eyes Tour Day 3

Time to announce the answers! (And don't forget about the other participants in this tour.)

By searching through Shannon Dittemore's website, Facebook page and interview, I gleaned these facts:

1. The title of the third book in the Angel Eyes Trilogy is titled "Dark Halo" (and what a cool looking cover to boot, eh?).

2. Shannon Dittemore names her biggest influences as J K Rowling and the Harry Potter series.

3. She supports the San Fransico 49ers who just made the Superbowl. No wonder she's pumped.

4. Her first agent was Jason Pinter and it was Holly Root who came in to save the day.

Bonus Question: Brielle is short for Gabrielle. An unusual nickname choice I thought, since Gabby is more popular.

Until next tour!

Remember to go buy Angel Eyes. Broken Wings is up for preorder as well with Dark Halo scheduled for release this August!

Angel Eyes Tour Day 2

On this, the second day of the tour, I thought we'd do a little scavenger hunt. First off, enjoy this interview with the author, Shannon Dittemore, on the Inspire Christian Writers website.

Now that you've read that (welcome back!) here are a few questions for you to dig up the answers to. All answers can be found either in the interview above or the author's website or Facebook page. 

1. In my review yesterday I mentioned that book 2 in this trilogy is titled "Broken Wings". What is the title of the third book?

2. Shannon Dittemore's names her biggest influences as which author and which books?

3. Shannon is a huge football fan. Which team does she enthusiastically support?

4. Her first agent unfortunately had to pull out on her before the deal was signed, but she snagged another at the same agency. What are both their names?

Bonus Question: What is the main character's nickname Brielle short for?

Comment with your answer below and the first person to get them right will get a little prize. What kind of prize? Well, you'll just have to visit tomorrow to see. Good luck! And remember, if you don't have the book already, give it a try here: http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Eyes-Shannon-Dittemore/dp/1401686354/

The other participants in this tour are also putting up posts today. Check them out here.

Answers are up! See Day 3's post here.

CSFF Blog Tour: Angel Eyes

Visit the post for Day 2 and Day 3 of the tour.

It's that time of month again! Time for the CSFF blog tour that is. If you were paying attention, you noticed that I haven't participated for the past two months. This was due to a technical mix-up which cancelled the November tour and I refrained from participating during December which preserved what sanity remained to me. But it's back on schedule this month. The book is "Angel Eyes" by Shannon Dittemore and it's book one in the "Angel Eyes Trilogy".

Where should I begin this review? I guess my first impressions of the book ought to be a good place to start. The cover is fairly standard for YA fantasy. I guessed from the beginning that the circle she's holding onto is a halo and I was pleasantly surprised to see how it was worked into the story.

But I'm discussing first impressions. The blurb on the back is intriguing and attracted my interest from the moment I ripped open the package to see the latest book I'd be reviewing.

"Once you've seen, you can't unsee. 

"Brielle went to the city to chase her dreams and found tragedy instead. She's come home to shabby little Stratus, Oregon, to live with her grief and her guilt . . . and the incredible, numbing cold she can't seem to shake.

Jake's the new guy at school. The boy next door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for corruption.

Something more than fate has brought them together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what's going to happen. And a beauty brighter than either Brielle or Jake has ever seen is calling them to join the battle in a realm where all human choices start.

A realm that only angels and demons-and Brielle-can perceive."

However, I didn't crack open the book until I was ready to review it and boy what a surprise awaited me. It took until the beginning of the first chapter for it to fully dawn on me that yes, "Angel Eyes" is written in not only first person POV but also present tense. Aye. Present tense. I almost stopped right there. It was so odd to read since past tense is the norm and therefore what I'm accustomed to reading. That same tense choice is precisely why I've been avoiding reading The Hunger Games (that and I've spoiled enough of the plot that I know I won't like how the series ends).

But, I thought, let's give this a chance. A review is no good if one hasn't read the whole book, good or bad, after all.

So I kept reading and nearly stopped again at the second surprise. The first chapter and indeed the set-up of the story in the rural town of Stratus reminds me of the first few pages of chapter one in Twilight. And that's not a good thing. Both have a girl who's not happy moving to a small, dreary town in the middle of nowhere. And both are complaining about it. Dreading it in fact.

After this nasty shock I was even more reluctant to read on. Nevertheless, I persevered and turned the next page - I had this thing called a review to write, remember? Strangely, though, each page I read drew me further into the story. Jake's entrance took myself as well as the main character, Brielle, by surprise. I eagerly anticipated the revealing of the angels and demons who took flesh around them. Bit by bit it drew me in until I wasn't so conscious of the present tense anymore, more the switching POVs between good and bad characters. The climax was suitably scary even if I knew instantly that the tragedy which befell Brielle couldn't be permanent.

All in all, by the end I was glad I hadn't given up at the beginning. I enjoyed it, even if it wasn't the typical fantasy or supernatural book I'd pick up somewhere and decide to read after browsing the first few pages.

Of course, the author's bio is on the last page in the book (after the page announcing the release of book two, "Broken Wings" this February). I was surprised to read that this was her first book. But I was also impressed. It's a decently written book for an author's first published work. I look forward to seeing where she'll take the trilogy from here.

In conclusion, this is a good YA supernatural fantasy book in the Christian tradition, despite the slow start. I would recommend it to the teens and young adults in my life. However, I think this author, Shannon Dittemore, has room to grow even within this trilogy and I'm looking forward to it.

You can find the book at here: http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Eyes-Shannon-Dittemore/dp/1401686354/

Also visit Shannon Dittemore's website and Facebook page.

Many other bloggers are participating in this tour. Check them out here!

As part of the CSFF blog tour I received a promotional copy of the book for this review.