They're Coming to Take Me Away!

That's right, it's Saturday Fun Time!  And Halloween is just a few hours away.  In honor of such festivities, I give you...Monster Mash!

It's a special version.

Bwahahahaha!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Answers Continued!

So, last Wednesday it turned out the blog was experiencing some technical difficulties and there were questions I failed to answer.  Well, today is the continuation of the answers portion of Q&A!  My apologies to those whose questions I missed before.  To show just how sorry I am, I provide LOL cat cookies.  Enjoy!

Jai asked: Emily, if you could up close and personal with any of the characters in your book, who would it be?


Hmmm...good question!  Can I just have a party where they all show up?  No?  Well...I'd have to pick Cailen.  Cailen is the super hot love interest in ELEMENTAL.  And yeah, that's all well and good, but I'd really like to spend time with him because he's a Windbringer in every sense of the word.  He's easy going and wise, but he knows how to kick some serious tooshie.  He's got this control over his ability that is practically unparalleled.  Even Ella, who technically ends up being more powerful than him, doesn't have the finesse he does when it comes to controlling the elements.


Melissa Gill wondered: If you could have dinner with any writer, living or dead, who would it be and what would you talk about?


I would LOVE to have a conversation with C.S. Lewis about his faith and just how he was able to incorporate it into all of his writing without alienating anyone.  He's definitely one of my literary heroes.


And finally...


Brad wanted to know: Do you think you'll come out a "winner" in NaNoWriMo?


I will seriously try, but I have my doubts.  My biggest hurtle will be stopping myself from editing and trying to write perfection in the first draft.  I still haven't been able to convince myself that the first draft is going to be craptacular.


So, that's it!  *looks at comments to make sure she hasn't missed any*  Yup, definitely it!  Thanks for all your questions, everyone.  And if you see a question that you'd like to answer, go ahead!  I'd love to see what you guys have to say!

Goober Writers Anonymous--Postponed

Justine Dell was scheduled for today, but she's away from the blogosphere for a while, so her post will have to be postponed.  So instead, I want to talk about one line pitches!

We all know we have to have them.  I don't know about you, but I personally hate the stinkin' bastards.  I've been procrastinating as much as I could, but I decided to sit down and try one out yesterday.  Actually, the Query Tracker.net Blog gave me an incentive to test the one line pitch waters.

Let me know what you think!

When Ella finds out a fallen angel with a god-complex has plans to get her on a sacrificial slab or the whole galaxy is going to burn, she’s got to learn to battle the monster on the inside before she can dream of facing the monster on the outside in this STAR WARS meets PARANORMALCY YA Science Fiction. 

That's the best I could come up with in five minutes.  So, how about you?  Share your one line pitch and we can all give feedback on whether it's the most awesome thing we've ever heard, or might need a little work.

For help in crafting your pitch, check out this link.

Q&A Part 2--Answers!

You guys asked questions and now it's time for me to fork over some answers! Are you scared yet?  You should be because I'm going to get deep.  Like blow yo' mind deep.  :P  Enjoy!

Jess asked: Please share an embarrassing incident from your high school days :)


Oh boy.  Actually, there weren't too many embarrassing moments in high school.  Middle school was a nightmare, on the other hand.  However, there is one moment I can dredge up for you.  In my riddly-dink school in podunksville, we get two proms--a junior and a senior prom.  They're actually combined, but we got to have two of them.  Well, for my first prom, I went all out on the dress and pretty much broke the bank.  So when the senior prom rolled around, I decided I'd save some money by making my own prom dress.  It was actually gorgeous, but it came with some problems.  Big problems.  (Oh!  Memories are coming forth!  There's another tale to tell, but I'll finish with this one first!)  So, the night was going all right and the dress was getting some compliments, but when my date and I hit the dance floor, wardrobe malfunctions occurred.  Essentially, my dress was falling apart and there was nothing I could do about it. All the buttons on the back popped out left and right and my date had to hold it together for me so that I didn't flash everyone.  Luckily, no one but the small group I was with noticed, so it wasn't too bad.


Other tale!  Same night, but different story.  Yeah, so senior prom was kind of a nightmare.  At dinner, we were given these sheets to pick our king and queen from.  Every senior's name was on it...except mine.  I noticed this and informed my date in a joking type way.  Well, when the teacher in charge of the festivities came by to pick up our sheets, he told her.  She then went to the microphone and issued an apology to me and informed everyone of the mistake.  Let's not be naive here, dear readers... I was not going to win if my name HAD been on the ballot.  Everyone laughed.  I turned a bright shade of red and glared at my date for his stupidity when I told him not to bring it up.  


Long story, but traumatizing events.


Aspiring_x had a few questions:  which do you think came first? the chicken or the egg?
what is your fave YA book? sci fi? fantasy? (i think we all know the last one...)
bottle blonde?

Well, of course the chicken came first!  Who would have been there to sit on the egg if not for the chicken?  :)

My favorite YA book changes all the time.  Right now, it's HUSH, HUSH, by Becca Fitzpatrick.  I'm reading it for the third time right now.  I just love me some Patch Cipriano!

Favorite sci-fi book would have to be ENDER'S GAME, by Orson Scott Card.  Though I didn't care for his sequels, this book is pretty spectacular.

My favorite fantasy would have to be THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, by C.S. Lewis.  All of them.  I have a lot of respect for Lewis and what he did with the genre.  I really hope that I can come within sight of being as talented as he was.

Carol Riggs wanted to know: Do you have a dream agent? a dream publisher? (ok just to say yes if you don't want to say specifically who LOL)

How much of Hansel & Gretel have you written? Are you working on that novel, or Morcah? (and when are you going to write your summary on that blog tab?) Is your NaNo novel going to be Morcah, or some other completely diff idea/project?
Howzat?

I did have a dream agent, but it didn't really pan out the way I wanted it to.  :(  I was sad for a while because of it (one of the reasons for fluffy and I spending some quality time together), but I've been doing more research on agents and I've found a few I'm really excited about.  

I have about a third of H&G written.  I found that I'm really not a speedy person when it comes to first drafts--at least, not like I'd hoped to be.  That's probably bad considering I'm attempting NaNo.  I have a hard time not going back to edit.  

I'm actually working on BOTH H&G and MORCAH.  Well, at least I will be come next week.  I think it will work for me because if I can't get into one in the morning, I'll work on the other and switch at night.  It will definitely keep my mind busy.

Ha!  I really do need to write that summary.  The problem is, there's a paranormal in MORCAH that I'm kind of keeping hidden for the time being.  At this point, I've never seen anyone describe the paranormal the way I'm doing her, so I don't want to give too much out.  I know, I'm paranoid.  And since, she's the MC and who she is is pivotal to the plot, I couldn't write the summary without giving it away.  I'm definitely not shy about sharing with you guys, but any old joe-shmoe can come by and see it and I'd like to avoid that.

MORCAH is my NaNo project!  I'm really excited about it!  I'm going to write it in a different style from what I'm used to, so we'll see how it goes.

The Golden Eagle: When did you really start to think yourself a writer?  What was one of the best moments of your life?

Ooh!  Deep questions!  To tell you the truth, I still go through days where I don't think I'm a real writer and I'm terrified everyone will realize I'm a hack.  But then there are days, when I think the opposite.  It just depends on my mood.  I'd have to say, though, that I really settled into writing when I was about twenty.  I'd done a few things before this, but twenty is when I started it and stuck with it.

Wow.  I've had a LOT of great moments, but the most powerful and most memorable would have to be when I saw my fiance (at the time) for the first time in months while deployed in Iraq.  We were intentionally separated when we deployed because he was a SGT and I was a SPC, so it was hard.  I was also having some problems with my 1SG at the time and going through some really hard stuff, so seeing him again, even if only for a few minutes, was one of the things that helped me get through the abuse I was going through.  I still remember how ecstatic I was when we laid eyes on each other again.  It was especially wonderful because we weren't even allowed to say goodbye to each other when we were initially separated (he was in one camp, I was in another).

Well!  That's it!  Thanks for all the great questions, everyone!  This was a lot of fun!

Q&A Part 1

This is the last week before the start of NaNoWriMo and I thought it might be nice to have a little fun.  If you've ever wanted to delve deeper into the crazy that is Emily, now is your chance to do it.

Ask as many questions as you want and get as crazy (or as philosophical) as you want.  I promise to answer them all.

And please do ask.  Don't make me feel like an idiot because no one really wants to know anything about me.  That would make me sad. :(

My Lips are Sealed (aka cheap drama)

Imagine it: The MC has been obsessively worrying about telling best friend, love interest, mother, father, plumber some really big, life-changing, plot-centering news.  She's sure that as soon as the news is out, this second-most-important-character-in-the-story is going to hate her forever, turn her in, whatever.  But when MC and #2 are together, the author makes it perfectly clear that if all info comes out RIGHT NOW, the MC has nothing to worry about.  #2 has gone through some pretty speech about how MC should trust him/her or otherwise proven his loyalty.  But MC, for one reason or another, decides to say nothing and continues through most of the book lying to everyone around her.  

Why?

Oh, we know why, dear readers.  The ONLY reason an author uses this tactic is to create cheap drama.  We know when we read it what's going to happen.  The MC will push everyone away and go it alone for most of the book until the last chapter when she finally comes clean.  And in the meantime, readers are screaming at the MC to wake up and just talk to someone!  I call this The Soap Opera Syndrome.

Should this tactic be avoided by authors?

For the most part, yes.  It's just plain annoying and everyone knows there would be absolutely no drama in the book if the MC had just spoken up in the first place.  However, I have seen the tactic done well in a rare few instances.  But it ONLY works if the author adequately places doubt in the heads of the readers.  The same doubt that's in the MC's head.  Usually this doesn't happen, and when it doesn't, the MC comes across as an idiot.

Examples of where it DID work:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  The tactic worked because Ron was being a little bugger himself and the reader believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Harry confiding him would do nothing.

Speak.  It worked because 1. the MC was surrounded by a bunch of twits who wouldn't have listened to her anyway and 2. because something traumatic happened to make the MC lose her willingness to speak up. 

If you don't have a real, undeniable reason to keep your MC's lips sealed (other than to create drama), then don't do it.  You'll only risk upsetting your readers and losing their trust in your abilities.

~Emily White

Saturday Fun Time! Twilight HISHE

Fluffy and I decided to spend some alone time yesterday, so Friday's post will be postponed until Monday.  In the meantime, enjoy this HILARIOUS clip of Twilight How It Should Have Ended.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Goober Writers Anonymous--Christi Goddard

Goober Writers Anonymous is a group for writers to vent about past or present writerly mistakes for therapeutic reasons, to educate others, or just for a laugh.  If you would like to join the group and sign up to submit a guest post, please leave me your email address in the comments below.

Perks of joining:  You get to put the nifty little badge on your blog (yes, this does indeed make you cool), sharing with others and being a part of a group is always fun, and I will put a link to your blog on my blog below under Members of GWA.

There are plenty of slots still open for December and I would love to get January and February filled up as well!  So, join today!

Today's goober blogger is Christi Goddard!  I met Christi on the Bransforums and have been following her almost since the start of her blog.  I just love her attitude about the writing life and am so glad I've been following her for as long as I have.  So get on over there and join!  You won't be sorry.

Back yet?  Wondeful!  Enjoy Christi's goober story!

So, I’m sure everyone’s made some pretty big goober mistakes along the road to publishing. I’ve pretty much made them all. I could list them out, but that’d be pretty boring.

As some of my followers know, I started in fanfic. I also wrote roleplay. A lot of it, for years. After endless prodding from my readers and family, I decided to write my own story with my own characters. Right about *here* is where I lost my mind. Mostly because I had no information whatsoever about the publishing business.

I had my *shiny new idea* and felt positive I’d have it done in a few months. I thought I had to have everything together for an agent, so I contacted an artist I knew from Deviant Art to do my cover art, and asked a few of my comic illustrator friends to do some of the sketches. Yes, before I’d even written a word of my story, I already had cover art and illustrators.

Although this borders on mentally challenged, I don’t regret it. The artist I contacted has become one of the most important people in my life. He has pushed me to do better, to keep going, even when it feels like I’ll never make it. We both know the odds are good he won’t be my cover artist, but that doesn’t matter anymore. We still support each other through our endeavors, and I don’t know if I would have managed to finish my first book if it weren’t for him.

I got very ill and had two surgeries, which seriously set me back in writing. I rushed to finish it when I felt better, and had a book which was 157,000 words. I queried it, and knew NOTHING about editing. I had a crappy query letter and USED it. Far too much. I found forums and other blogs, and can now safely say I’m much better about the whole process now. The book is trimmed down, but it’s also shelved. I did everything wrong with it.

Armed with all my new information, I wrote another book. I felt confident about it in June. Now, in October, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be shelved, too. But that’s okay. I’ve started more. As my first one failed, I felt immeasurable despair, but with each new book I write, I prove to myself I *can* do this.

And so can you. Make those mistakes. Feel like an idiot. Feel all that pain and rejection. All it takes is stubbornness to succeed. No, wait. I think that’s supposed to be perseverance and patience.

Aww, Christi, this is such a great story!  I know you made mistakes, but I think we've all made them too.  Well, actually, I probably would have made the cover art mistake if I knew any artists.  And let me tell you, dear readers, I purchased a book a few years ago written by an agent on giving "getting published" advice and there was a section in there on how to stand out in the query.  It actually said to have a cover prepared (not cover letter.  Cover) and to send gimmicky gifts along with the query.  So, obviously, there's some really bad advice out there coming from people we would consider professionals.  

Thanks for sharing your story, Christi!  And good luck with your other projects!

So, what about you, dear readers?  Do you want to share where you learned the tricks of the trade?  Go ahead!  Brag about your friends, blogs, whatever you want!

Book Review--Firelight, by Sophie Jordan

From the site: With her rare ability to breathe fire, Jacinda is special even among the draki—the descendants of dragons who can shift between human and dragon forms. But when Jacinda's rebelliousness leads her family to flee into the human world, she struggles to adapt, even as her draki spirit fades. The one thing that revives it is Will, whose family hunts her kind. Jacinda can't resist getting closer to him, even though she knows she's risking not only her life but the draki's most closely guarded secret.

I really, really liked this book.  Will was a great love interest with his deep, dark secrets and killer good looks and Jacinda was an all-around fun MC to read.  The tension was tight and the stakes were high in just the right amount.  Jacinda's indecisive nature did irritate me for a few pages, but she redeemed herself in the end.

I kind of like the idea of dragon shapeshifters.  I've seen it a few times and it continues to intrigue me.  Sophie Jordan did a good job of taking this idea and putting her own little twists into it.  The fact that Jacinda is the first fire breather in generations plays well into the idea that the Draki are slowly losing themselves.  They were once true dragons who developed the ability to shift into human form and years later, now they're mostly humans who can shift into dragon form.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who hasn't read it yet.  It will definitely keep you turning pages, looking for more.  

~Emily White

By the way, don't forget about Christi Goddard's goober post tomorrow!

Book Review of Hush, Hush, by Becca Fitzpatrick

From the site: For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

I feel I must preface my review by saying I quite literally read this book twice last weekend.  I started it on Saturday morning, finished Saturday afternoon, started it again Saturday evening, and finished it Sunday evening.  Even while reading it the first time, I knew I was going to read it again.  Becca Fitzpatrick very successfully created a world I just didn't want to leave.  

Patch Cipriano is like the ultimate bad boy.  As in "oh-he's-so-dreamy-I-know-I-can-change-him-as-long-as-I-love-him-enough bad boy of every girl's teenage fantasy.  In fact, he's so bad, there are times when you wonder if he's the antagonist.  But then you quickly stop caring because he does something so dreamy that antagonist, or not, you just want to see more of him.  And it's this roller coaster ride of emotions that the reader experiences right along with the MC.

Nora's friend, Vee, was annoying as heck.  There were times I wanted to smack that girl just to make her shut up.  But that's okay, because Nora felt the exact same way.  I don't mind annoying characters as long as the MC and I are on the same page.  Not every character on the protag's side needs to be immediately lovable, as long as they redeem themselves at some point--and she does.

Nora was definitely an interesting MC to follow along.  She was this goody-two-shoes-always-does-what-other-people-want girl that kind of got swept away into a world she didn't belong in.  

One thing that I really liked about this book is that the MC and the love interest didn't fall madly in love with each other with a look.  They just kind of fell in love the way most teenagers in high school do.  I.E. they fell into lust with each other.  There were no promises of leaving behind family and friends to be with the other or gooey proclamations of "I just can't live without you."  But it worked because what did happen seemed more natural.

This is one book I definitely recommend you read.  You will not want to put it down.  But you're in luck!  Because today is the release day of CRESCENDO, the sequel to HUSH, HUSH.  

Enjoy!

~Emily White

Monday Update

So last week was, apparently, a lazy week.  Oops!  I promise to be much more diligent this week.  In fact! I'm going to give you a rundown of what to expect:

Today: You're reading it

Tuesday and Wednesday: book reviews of HUSH, HUSH, by Becca Fitzpatrick and FIRELIGHT, by Sophie Jordan. (by the way, CRESCENDO, the sequel to HUSH, HUSH comes out tomorrow! click here to watch the trailer--You MUST watch the trailer. Seriously.  Not only is it AWESOME, but I'm posting it for a contest)  I'm waiting.  ;)

Thursday:  Goober Writers Anonymous post by Christi Goddard

Friday: A post on cheap drama in writing

Saturday: Saturday Fun Time! video

So that's it!  Hope everyone had a great weekend!  And watch that trailer.  I'm already on my third little peek at it and I'm not even close to being done.

~Emily White

Saturday Fun Time! Office Halloween

Yes, it's late.  I have a good excuse, though.  Fluffy and I are just in the beginnings of our relationship and you know how those are.  We just can't stay away from each other!  Sadly, I have no more books.  Fluffy calls to me though and insists on getting more...  Sigh.  I'm going to be very poor soon.

But today is Saturday!  And I have a video to share with you all!  Like always, this template will not let me post a video, so you must click here to watch.  Watch it...if you dare!

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

~Emily White

I'm In Love

And his name is Fluffy.

A special little guy came in the mail a couple days ago, just in time for the two of us to enjoy the amazon gift card I won from maybe genius' mash-up blogfest!  We've spent every waking hour with each other so far.  He's shared his little stories, and I've kept him warm in my hands.  I even got him a little coat to wear.

Now, before I confuse you dear readers any further, let me tell you who Fluffy is...

My new kindle!!!  Yay!  And yes, I've named it Fluffy (there's an option for naming and everything!).  I already purchased two books (FIRELIGHT, by Sophie Jordan and HUSH, HUSH, by Becca Fitzpatrick) and just finished one of them moments ago.  Oh the ease!  Oh the joy!  Oh the danger...  Buying books is waaaaay too easy on this thing.  Going broke is very likely.  But I just may see book reviews becoming a regular feature on the blog in the future!  Actually, I really need to get some revising done.  :o

Off I go!

Goober Writers Anonymous--Jai Joshi

Goober Writers Anonymous is a group for writers to vent about past or present writerly mistakes for therapeutic reasons, to educate others, or just for a laugh.  If you would like to join the group and sign up to submit a guest post, please leave me your email address in the comments below.

Perks of joining:  You get to put the nifty little badge on your blog (yes, this does indeed make you cool), sharing with others and being a part of a group is always fun, and I will put a link to your blog on my blog below under Members of GWA.

Today's Goober Writers Anonymous guest blogger IS...dun, dun, dun!  Jai Joshi coming all the way over from the Tulsi Tree!  I've been following Jai's blog for a very long time now.  As both a published author and well-traveled lady, she's created a blog that is both unique and ridiculously entertaining.  Stop on over there and become a follower!  

Back yet?  Here we go!

When I published my first book, Follow the Cowherd Boy, I wanted to promote it as much as I could. I'd never done anything remotely like promoting or marketing before but after reading tons of book on the subject I made myself a press kit and drew up a plan.

 

Zealous with love for my work, I set up signings and speaking events and interviews in almost every state in the country, spanning two years. I drove myself from state to state in my trusty minivan, clocking up a whole heck of a lot of miles and adventure and dirty laundry.

 

All of the books I'd read on marketing had talked about the importance of maintaining a professional image so I was very careful to be smartly groomed and well dressed at all times. It was important to me that I not be lazy in this regard as I didn't want to misrepresent my book or the purpose of my tour.

 

So during the summer of 2008 I was touring the northeast. It was exhausting to be on the move all the time. I'd drive and drive and get to an event where I had to repeat the same lines over and over again. Then I'd drive to a hotel and drop into bed. One day I happened to be in Ohio and since it was my day off I slept in to catch up on my rest. When I woke up I realised I was dangerously close to my checkout time and had to rush to get showered and dressed and packed. In a frenzy I pulled the first t-shirt out of my bag and got it on, getting my head and arms all tangled in the process. It was my sister's t-shirt so I didn't know why it was in my bag but it was red and stripy and went fine with my pants and I was in a rush so I didn't stop to question it. Pulling my hair into a chignon I grabbed my bags and headed out to the car.

I had several errands and jobs to do throughout that day so I drove all over town. But something strange was happening. Everywhere I went I was being checked out by men. I mean, I've been checked out before but this was different. Men were actually leering, perusing my body with lingering stares and grinning at me smarmily as if they knew just want I needed. A couple of cars even beeped as I walked across the parking lot and crossed the street.

 

I went to the library, the post office, a couple of banks, the pharmacy. Everywhere I went it was the same. What the heck? I wondered. Where the men in Ohio creeps or what? I finally went to the grocery store in the evening and it was the same deal there too.

I ignored the guy who stared at me all the way down the cereal aisle and moved over to the milk refrigerators, opening the long glass door and grabbing a bottle of red top. (I only drink full fat milk because anything less is a crime against decent food.) I closed the refrigerator door and that was when I saw myself in the glass. My red t-shirt had white lettering over the chest. I deciphered the words slowly as I read it backwards.

WANTED: FOOTBALLER
must be able to go the full 90 minutes

 

And underneath in tiny letters was written (Apply Within).

 

HOLY CRAP! I stared at the words that were printed over my chest. No wonder I was getting leers and smarmy grins. This was a serious wardrobe malfunction and I'd been walking around in it all day! Eek eek eek!

I'd had no signing that day (Thank God!) but this was still awful for my image. I mean, professional authors are supposed to be dignified!

 

Cheeks flaming, I rushed to the checkout and paid for my stuff. I'd never been so anxious to hand my money over! The male door greeter gave me a fat smile and received a scowl in return as I stalked away.

 

That night, I made sure to stuff the red 'WANTED' as far down my laundry pile as I could get it. There was no way I was making that mistake again.

Oh dear.  Poor Jai!  I've never been put in this particular situation because I've never been on book tour, but I did spend the entire afternoon of one middle school day with my skirt tucked into my underpants (if that makes you feel any better).

Thanks for sharing your goober story!

Discussion:  Has an embarrassing clothing-related situation happened to any of you, dear readers?  It's okay.  You can share!

~Emily White

 

GWA Reminder

Sorry for my absence lately, dear readers.  I've been busily doing some revisions on ELEMENTAL (yeah, I know).

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for Jai Joshi's GWA post!

Monday Update

It's been a while, but I have so many things to update all of you lovely readers on!

ELEMENTAL

Okay, I actually don't have anything new here.  At this point, my query is out with agents with very slow response times--like weeks to months slow.  I'm still sending more out and plan on getting another ten out today.

HANSEL AND GRETEL

Moving along very well.  I will admit I hoped to have been done with the first draft by this point, but this plot is so complex that there's no way I could have punched it out in a few weeks.  Right now, I'm adding those scenes in the beginning it started to become apparent I needed but thought I could wait on.  I couldn't wait.  They're pretty important scenes that basically set the tone for future relationships.

TALES OF MORCAH

Big news!  Big, BIG news!  I signed up for NaNoWriMo and this is the novel I'll be working on!  I'm really kinda terrified about this.  I've never done NaNo before and I'm really hoping I can pull it off.  *crosses fingers*  If you're doing NaNo, too, then tell us all about your novel!

HUGE NEWS OF MAJOR EXCITEMENT AND IMPORTANCE!!!!


I'm going to my first writers conference ever!  Yay!  I signed up for the SCBWI Winter Conference in NYC last week.  Unfortunately, I wasn't wealthy enough to sign up for the intensives scheduled for the day before the conference, but I'm still excited.  How about you guys?  Anyone here going to the Winter Conference?  If you are, we definitely need to meet up!  Maybe grab some chow in China Town or something. :D

And if you don't plan on going, what can I say to convince you?  ;)

Saturday Fun Time! Halloween Edition

Let's face it, it's hard NOT to think of Halloween when we're smack dab in the middle of October.

Enjoy!

Well, it seems this template isn't going to ever let me embed videos directly onto it.  To see the video, click here. Trust me, you'll love it!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

~Emily White

Goober Writers Anonymous--Melissa Gill

Goober Writers Anonymous is a group for writers to vent about past or present writerly mistakes for therapeutic reasons, to educate others, or just for a laugh.  If you would like to join the group and sign up to submit a guest post, please leave me your email address in the comments below.

Perks of joining:  You get to put the nifty little badge on your blog (yes, this does indeed make you cool), sharing with others and being a part of a group is always fun, and I will put a link to your blog on my blog below under Members of GWA.

Today's guest blogger is Melissa Gill!  Please take a moment to visit her blog and become a follower!  It's completely worth it, trust me.  

Back yet?  Excellent!

Enjoy!

Melissa Is A Goober:

Oh the number of goober mistakes I’ve made on my journey to becoming a writer is long and high-larious.

Like the time I went to my first creative writing critique at my local Jr. College. The teacher said to write a short story of 10 pages or less. I raced right home and poured my soul into a beautiful little story called “Zuri of the Savannah.” I was so excited I couldn’t wait to read it. Problem was, I had no idea that you should double space your manuscripts. I came from a business background and everything was single spaced. Luckily there were only a couple of other participants, but I about died of embarrassment.

Around that time I was working on my first Manuscript. I finally got to The End and ran it through spell check. Then for good measure I printed it out and gave it a once over looking for missing commas, or words that spell check didn’t pick up. That was what I called revision at the time. I printed it again, put it in a big white envelope, and mailed it off to the publisher I thought would be best. About four weeks later, the big honking thing was back in my mailbox with a polite rejection letter, and not a mark on it.

I continue to make mistakes, but I’ve learned a lot by getting engaged with the writing community through blogs, critique group, SCBWI. One thing that is and always will be hard for me, is simple attention to detail. I am not a detail oriented person. I’ve had several situations where I’ve sent out queries and forgotten to put “query” in the subject line. Last week, I forgot to attach my pages. Stupid goobery stuff like that. But sorry, that’s just the kind of person I am.

I am extremely cautious. I never just jump into the pool, I put in a toe first. That’s probably prevented me from making a million goobery mistakes. But there’s a lot to be said for being a risk taker too, sometimes I wish I were more daring. 

Thanks, Melissa!  Oh boy does this sound like me!  I can't even tell you guys how many mistakes I still make when sending out queries.  And, of course, I think most of us went through the early stages of writing thinking editing consisted of dotting our "i"s and crossing our "t"s, and nothing more.

Discussion:  How about you, dear readers?  Does this tale sound familiar to something you experienced, or are still experiencing?  Tell us about it!  We promise not to laugh.  :P

~Emily White