Cool Links Friday

There were so many great blog posts this week, but here are some of my favorites. Enjoy.

Writing YA and want to make your kisses smoocherific? Kristin Otts has some great advice. Warning: Have your significant other nearby in case the urge to kiss him (her) strikes. Trust me on that.

Emilia Plater (YA Highway) points out the the five protagonists you meet in YA. A definite must read.

And don’t forget your antagonist. Kelly Lyman has some great advice to keep yours from becoming a cardboard villain.

Is your shiny manuscript now ready for the world? Is it free of the 15 things that frustrate readers? Then check out Tahereh Mafia’s hilarious post, What Janet Reid is Really Thinking. If you’re not following Tahereh . . . well, you seriously should be.

Now that you’ve written that fab query based on Tahereh’s superb advice, pop on over to visit Weronika Janczuk and learn how to email it to your dream agent. You’ll be glad you did.

And while you’re at it, be sure to check out the Blood Red Pencil to get your pitch ready in case you happen upon an agent in Starbucks. It could happen, right?

Spring break starts today, so my family and I are flying south. Just not as far south as they would like—as in Mexico. So I’ll be going unplugged today and next week. I’ll see you when I get back.

Have a great week!

Which One is Not Like the Others?

Oops! I forgot to post the truth about me from Monday. So here goes.


I’m fluent in three languages: Finnish, Swedish, and English.

False. I’ve studied Finnish, but I’m not fluent. Not even close.

My favorite Disney Princess is Snow White. And boy does she ever end up with one hottie of a prince.

False. I prefer Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.

I used to promote birth control when I was a pharmaceutical sales rep. Of course I had to suffer through the wisecracks about the drugs efficacy when I was pregnant. The joke became old fast.

False. Most of it was true except I used to promote drugs for cardiovascular disease and asthma. But I did get the comment, “I hope you’re not promoting birth control,” more times than I’d care to remember when I was pregnant.

I married my college sweetheart. He used to be quarterback for the football team.

False. I met my husband after I graduated from grad school. I almost dated a university football player. Only I didn’t realize he liked me. Okay, maybe he should have told me that a lot sooner than he did.

I used to train competitively as a biathlete. You know, the sport with skis where you shot at things. Preferably not your fellow skiers.

False. I used to ski cross-country, but I never trained to be a biathlete.

I’ve taken Latin dance lessons and can do one spicy salsa. That’s when my husband fell in love with me. Or so he claims.

False. My husband and I started taking ballroom dancing when we first met. We both sucked at it.

When I was in grad school, I tested the fitness level of a NHL (National Hockey League) player the Edmonton Oilers were thinking of signing. He hit on me the entire time. Several hours later, I showed up at his hotel.

True. Only I didn’t know he was staying there. I was at the hotel to pick up my work visa from the Finnish Consulate, which was in the hotel. And judging from his expression . . . well you can imagine what he thought. Fortunately his ‘handler’ was dragging him to the airport. And no, the Oilers never signed him. Too much of a bad reputation. No kidding!

So there you go. The real truths about me.

Leaping Back in Time (part 2)

Yesterday, I discussed the use of flashbacks to help convey emotion in a scene. Today, I’m going to discuss verb tense in a flashback.

Many novice writers use the past perfect tense (if the novel is in past tense) or past tense (novel is in present tense) though the whole flashback. Here’s an example from my novel, Lost in a Heartbeat, which shows how not to write the flashback and then how to. I’ve highlighted the past perfect verb so it’s easy to see the difference. (Hint: you don't have to read far to get my point. Save yourself the time. You can just eyeball the difference.)

At his touch, common sense bailed on me. His lips were warm and inviting. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much I wanted to kiss him, that undeniable pull. I returned his kiss, tasting his sweet, minty breath, not wanting the moment to end. But the memory of another came back to haunt me.

I had been in the car of the guy from last summer. He’d promised to drive me home since I had been feeling really weird. I had closed my eyes so the world would stop spinning, and had told him where I lived. The words had sounded strange, slurred and weary. I hadn’t been even sure he had heard me over the rock music booming through the enclosed space.


The car had eventually stopped and the engine had been turned off. But instead of familiar houses, darkness and trees had surrounded us. Beyond that I had been unable to see anything that would tell me where we were. I had wanted to ask him, but I had felt too out of it to string the words together.


The guy had leaned forward and kissed me. It had started out sweet. His lips brushing against mine. But as seconds had passed, it became insistent and punishing. I had wanted to push him away, to tell him to stop, but I had been unable to. My arms had lacked the strength to do anything but hang lifelessly at my sides.
He had continued to kiss me, his hand trailing up my inner thigh, past the hem of my skirt, and pausing for a breath at the junction where underwear had met thigh.

With tears streaming down my face, I pushed myself free, shoving him as hard as I could, and scrambled away.


“Shit! Calleigh, I’m sorry.”


A hand grabbed my left arm. I screamed and yanked my arm away then slugged my attacker in the face with the heel of my right hand like I’d seen on TV.


My wrist shrieked in pain.


Groaning loudly, the guy staggered back a step, his hand automatically going to his eye. It was then that I realized it was Aaron, not the guy from that night.

Whew! That was exhausting adding all those extra hads. Now, if you're writing that epic 200,000 + word novel, then go ahead and use as many hads as you want. Every extra word counts, right? And if you managed to read all of that, I commend you. I couldn't do it.

Okay for the rest of us, here's the correct way:

At his touch, common sense bailed on me. His lips were warm and inviting. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much I wanted to kiss him, that undeniable pull. I returned his kiss, tasting his sweet, minty breath, not wanting the moment to end. But the memory of another came back to haunt me.


I was in the car of the guy from last summer. He’d promised to drive me home since I was feeling really weird. I closed my eyes so the world would stop spinning, and told him where I lived. The words sounded strange, slurred and weary. I wasn’t even sure he heard me over the rock music booming through the enclosed space.


The car eventually stopped and the engine was turned off. But instead of familiar houses, darkness and trees surrounded us. Beyond that I couldn’t see anything that would tell me where we were. I wanted to ask him, but I felt too out of it to string the words together.


The guy leaned forward and kissed me. It started out sweet. His lips brushing against mine. But as seconds passed, it became insistent and punishing. I wanted to push him away, to tell him to stop, but I couldn’t. My arms lacked the strength to do anything but hang lifelessly at my sides.


He continued to kiss me, his hand trailing up my inner thigh, past the hem of my skirt, and pausing for a breath at the junction where underwear met thigh.


With tears streaming down my face, I pushed myself free, shoving him as hard as I could, and scrambled away. . . .

See the difference? The second example allows you to be in the moment. It flows better. The first one is awkward. All you need to do is add one perfect past tense verb (had) at the beginning and at end of the flashback to show the transition in and out. If your novel is in present tense, then use past tense once when you’re starting and once when you’re about to jump back to the present.

You might have noticed I didn’t signal when the flashback ended. The sentence “With tears streaming down my face . . . .” is in the present moment, but Calleigh doesn’t realize it at that point. She and the reader realize her mistake after she reacts and hits Aaron. I didn’t transition with the change in verb tense because it’s obvious the flashback is over.

So there you go. A mini lesson on writing flashbacks. Do them correctly, and it’ll make a huge difference in your writing. The best thing to do is study how your favorite authors write them. You’ll learn a lot by doing that.

Leaping Back in Time (part 1)

To help the reader connect with your characters, you need to show the characters’ emotions. Flashbacks are a good way to enhance emotion in a scene. Instead of telling why the character feels this way, you show it based on events that happened in the past. However, before you add a flashback to a scene, there’re some important points you need to know.

1. Stories move forward, right? But flashbacks move back in time. Using a flashback can slow the pace of your story and can leave your readers frustrated. They just want to keep reading the immediate action, not be forced to jump back and forth.

2. Make sure your flashback is there for a good reason. Don’t include it just for the sake of having one.

3. Only include the most relevant information. Don’t go off on some other tangent because you think it sounds cool. Get in and out as quickly as possible.

4. Avoid using them in your first chapter.


Types of flashbacks:

1. Narration: This is the sentence or short paragraph that tells you about an event in a character’s past. You’re quickly in and out of the flashback before the story has a chance to stop.

2. Scene within a scene: This flashback includes action and dialogue—like a regular scene. You’re there with the character, living her emotions at that moment, so when she steps back into the present, her emotions there take on a more vivid feel.

3. A combination of the two.

Another point you need to consider is how you’re going to transition in and out of the flashback. You want to avoid jumping up and down, screaming, “Flashback starts here!” Jessica Morrell has some great advice and examples in, Writing Between the Lines. Remember, you’ll need something significant to trigger the memory, but avoid this mistake:

Seeing the apple, Brianna remembered back to the time when she was three years old and visited her aunt on the set of Days of Our Lives.

If every time Brianna sees an apple and remembers that day, then I suggest she gets therapy. Then find something unique as a trigger. Oh and a hint, that was a lousy transition.

Okay, that’s enough to absorb for one day. The rest of the lesson will be posted tomorrow.

New Design!

Yes, I am a genius!

Okay, maybe not. But I finally figured out how to download this template onto Blogger. Turns out I needed to unzip it first. I mean, really, why didn't they say that in the first place?

So why this template?

1. My current wip is called Lost in a Heartbeat.
2. It takes place in a made up city by a huge lake in Minnesota.
3. The template is called Chocolate Beach. I'm a chocoholic. Need I say more?

Now I'll admit there are some things I'd like to tweak. But I'm going to save that adventure for another week (or month).

Dazzingly Awards for Awesome Blogs

Instead of my usually Monday photography tips, I’m going to present two awards to some awesome blogs.

The Creative Writer Award

The rules are:

1. Thanks the person who gave you this award (thank you Katie!!)
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog
3. Link to the person who nominated you (see #1)
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Nominate 7 creative writers who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate (see below).
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

About me:

1. I’m fluent in three languages: Finnish, Swedish, and English.
2. When I was in grad school, I tested the fitness level of a NHL (National Hockey League) player the Edmonton Oilers were thinking of signing. He hit on me the entire time. Several hours later, I showed up at his hotel.
3. My favorite Disney Princess is Snow White. And boy does she ever end up with one hottie of a prince.
4. I used to promote birth control when I was a pharmaceutical sales rep. Of course, I had to suffer through the wisecracks about the drug's efficacy (how well it worked) when I was pregnant. The joke became old fast.
5. I married my college sweetheart. He used to be quarterback for the football team.
6. I used to train competitively as a biathlete. You know, the sport with skis where you shot at things. Preferably not your fellow skiers.
7. I’ve taken Latin dance lessons and can do one spicy salsa. That’s when my husband fell in love with me. Or so he claims.

Can you guess which is the truth?

I’m passing on the award to the following blogs:

1. Tahereh Mafi. ‘Cause she filled with awesome.
2. Weronkia Janczuk. ‘Cause she wants to help writers reach their goal, and it’s amazing what she does to achieve that.
3. Carrie Harris. ‘Cause she makes me laugh. Seriously laugh. I can’t wait to read her first book.
4. Debbi Ohi at Inky Girl. ‘Cause she makes me wish I could draw.
5. Cassandra Marshall. ‘Cause she’s bursting with great free advice.
6. Beth Revis. ‘Cause she landed a three book deal for her YA Sci Fi series. Man, she has to be creative to do that. Right?
7. Danyelle Leafty at Myth Takes. ‘Cause she’s so sweet.

Quillfeather Award



Thank you, Abby Annis.

This award comes with the instructions to share with you how I like my eggs.
I like my eggs sunny side squished. And it has to be cooked. I can’t stand the runny stuff. Totally gross!

I pass this on to:

1. Sherrie Solvang ‘Cause she’s smart and has a great mantra. I seriously have to get me one of those.
2. BJ Anderson ‘Cause her blog is just plain cool.
3. Slam Dunk ‘Cause he’s enlightening in an amusing kind of way.

Redesigning Blog

I've decided to make some major changes to the design of my blog. Okay, I'm jealous of all the great blogs out there and wanted to give mine a little oomph. Only thing is I'm still figuring what that is and how to do it.

In the meantime, please bear with me during my experimental phase.

Cool Links Friday

I love blogs with links to great posts. It’s how I discover new blogs I want to follow. Blogs that make me laugh. Blogs that teach me something new. Or blogs with incredible voices that stick with me. *waves to Elana Johnson*

Now bear with me. I came up with the idea of having the regular feature while showering this morning. But here're some links that grabbed my attention this week that I wanted to share.

Are you are plotter or a panster? Turns out I’m a snowflaker, and not because I live in Canada. What is a snowflaker? Nicole Ducleroir had a great post about it this morning and a link that explains how to do it. It’s a great technique. And I’m not just saying it because I do it. *grins*

Tahereh Mafi has a snarferrific (I stole that term from Elana J) solution for writing a query.

Cassandra Marshall posted a hilarious video of the Twilight cast doing the river dance. But I’m disappointed. No Jacob.

You have your protagonist figured out. But what about your antagonist? Laurel Garver has some great advice at creating realistic antagonists that won’t leave your readers rolling their eyes.

Need advice on keeping your writing concise? Suzannah at Write It Sideways has some great links.

That’s it for now. Monday, I’ll be passing on some well deserved awards to some awesome blogs.

Have a great weekend!

Great News for Contest Junkies

Here’s some info on two contests I wanted to share with you. They’re perfect for contest junkies. In other words, ME!

If you haven’t heard the big news yet—and seriously, if you haven’t, where’ve you been?—Beth Revis just signed a three book deal with Razorbill for her YA SF series. How cool is that? And no, you didn’t hear any jealousy in my voice. *winks*

In honor of her great news, Beth is holding a contest. Check it out now!

Are you working on your query? Check out Gretchen McNeil’s blog for some great query writing advice and a chance to win a query critique. Now who doesn’t want that?

Showing Your True Emotions

Once a month, the Authoress holds a Secret Agent contest on her blog, Miss Snark’s First Victim. Writers send her the first 250-words of their completed novel, and an agent and other writers critique it.

A number of reasons exist why entries might not leave the critters wanting to read more. One deals with the reader being unable to connect with the main character. We don’t feel what she’s feeling because she’s not feeling anything. Her boyfriend dies. Not a tear is shed. Zombies attack. There’s no flight or fight response. Definitely not good.

Several things to keep in mind when writing emotions:

1. Show don’t tell. Okay, you’ve heard this before, but it’s so true. Show us the tears instead of telling us your character is sad. A great resource is the emotional thesaurus on the blog, The Bookshelf Muse.


2. If your character says, “I’m so sad today,” that’s the same thing as telling.


3. Forget about adverbs. “I’m fine,” she said sadly. That’s still telling.


4. Let your character go through a range of emotions in the scene. She might start off mildly irritated by something at the beginning and be angry by the end.


5. Tried to avoid the same old clichés. That’s where The Bookshelf Muse is extremely helpful. And make sure you vary the body parts that respond. In other words, the heart isn’t the only organ that reacts when we’re scared. I’ve blogged about this before.


6. Make sure your character’s emotions are appropriate to the situation. Unless your character is a hand model on a Revlon photo shoot, she’s not going to respond to a broken fingernail the same way as if her BFF died. Right?


7. Pay attention to the verbs you use. A character who storms off the football field is experiencing a different emotion to one who is limping or sauntering off the field.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? Do you find emotions hard to write in a scene? If so, I hope this helps.

Contest News!

The girls over at Chimera Critique are holding a contest. Be sure to check it out. You might also want to take advantage of their critting services. They recently critiqued the first chapter for a friend of mine, and she was very impressed. I haven’t used them yet, but I will in the near future.

Tip # 65: Playing Mother Nature

See how a little creativity can take a picture to the next level?

This photo hasn’t been altered in Photoshop Elements. I found the flower in the florist department of the grocery store, and was hit with the idea of pretending I was Mother Nature.

Next time you see something that catches your eye, see if there’s a way to make the shot unique. And keep your eyes open for cool pictures in magazines and books. They’re a great source of inspiration.

Rules of Attraction Trailer

If you haven't read Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles, seriously, what’s wrong with you?

Okay, I’m kidding. There’s nothing wrong with you, but you’re gonna want to read it. It's definitely one of my favorite YA novels. Delicious and ever so steamy.

And while you're at it, check out the trailer for the sequel, Rules of Attraction. I've never been into trailers, but this is a must see.



Now I really can’t wait for the sequel. Actually, I can’t wait to read Perfect Chemistry again. Wow, this Alex’s way hotter than the version in my head.

Clichés, Subtext, POV, Oh my!

I’ve almost finished week #2 of my YA writer’s workshop, so I thought I’d share with you some of the stuff I’ve learned so far. I’ll admit most of what I’ve studied isn’t new to me. I’ve already read a zabillion books on writing. But sometimes it’s nice to get a little reminder or two of the important stuff to pay attention to.

For obvious reasons, I’m not going to print off the lecture notes. I will, though, share a few things I’ve noticed while critting my classmates’ assignments, plus include some important stuff covered in the course. Last week the focus was on POV. This week it’s dialogue.

1. What your character doesn’t say is as important as what they do say. This is known as subtext, and a whole chapter is dedicated to the topic in one of my favorite books on writing: Getting Into Character by Brandilyn Collins.

2. Make sure you know proper dialogue mechanics . . . unless you want an agent to reject your novel based on the first page. There’re a lot of books on writing dialogue, and they all cover this important topic. Please don’t fudge it. These are the rules you can’t ignore.

3. Please pay attention to your character’s point of view. One of the assignments I critted had the main character jump into another character’s head. Sorry you can’t do that--unless it’s a paranormal novel. Another writer was also confused by POV. She asked me, since the main character’s mom’s name is Bonnie Tyler (not the real name), if she can alternate between Bonnie and Mrs Tyler in the narration. The answer is no. Because the POV character’s a teen, she would refer to Mrs Tyler as either ‘her mom’ or ‘Alyson’s mom’ (the novel is in third person) in the narration. There are, of course, exceptions to this.

If you find yourself struggling with POV, check out The Power of Point of View: Make Your Story Come to Life by Alicia Rasley.

4. Skip on the clichéd characters. Slush piles are already loaded with tons of them. I critted one assignment in which the secondary character was the geeky team manager of the high school basketball team. And guess what? He was bullied by the jocks. Yawn. Not. Original. Fortunately, there are ways for writer to improve the characterization and strengthen the story.

In case you’re wondering, no I haven’t made any of these mistakes. Have I received tons of feedback to make my novel better? Uh . . . well . . . no. From my classmates’ perspective, I handed in another kick-ass assignment. My instructor’s comments made me realize the drawbacks to the course. She doesn’t know what happened in the preceding chapters, so what she perceives might be a problem, isn’t. There are things at stake in the scene. My main character does have a motive. And both the characters have opposing scene objectives (okay, the instructor didn’t bring up this point, but it's in my favorite book on writing).

Regardless of these drawbacks, I’m happy with the feedback in the workshop. And at least I know my teen dialogue is authentic. Believe me, that’s a huge deal. Plus I'm editing those excerpt of my novel like crazy, and focusing on my "issue." That in itself is worth it.

I hope that helps. Next week’s lesson is on writing YA emotions. And we know what a roller coaster ride that can be.

Contest Monday

Hmmm. Maybe I should move my photography tip day to Tuesdays, and designate Mondays to announcing all the contests my super cool blogger friends are having. What do you think?

Check out Elana Johnson’s blog for a chance to win some great YA novels. Trust me, they’re great. I’ve read (own) about half of them already. And the best part is they’re autographed by the author. What could be better than that?

Okay, maybe there is something slightly better than that. How about a chance to have Suzie Townsend (an agent from FinePrintLit) crit the first 50 pages of your manuscript. For more info and the list of other prizes, check out Suzette Saxton and Bethany Wiggins' blog, Shooting Stars.

You can stop drooling on your keyboard. Seriously, you’re gonna want to quit drooling, at last long enough to enter both great contests.

Striving To Be Better

As writers, we do everything we can to hone our craft. Our libraries are filled with books on writing. We tear our novels apart during the editing process, and submit our words (and egos) to be torn apart by our writer friends. We enter contests. We post our pages on forums such as Verlakay and Absolute Write. Everything to give us that edge, to get better.

But sometimes that’s not enough.

I recently landed a request from an agent for my novel. I was excited, of course. But I was also realistic. Fortunately I queried an agent who *gasp* doesn’t reply with a form rejection. Instead, she gave me feedback no one else had. In the past, I'd go back and fix those errors then query the next group of agents. My writing has grown a lot since my last book (according to those who’ve read both) because of this.

But this time that approach wasn’t enough.

This time I decided to take a writer’s workshop. That’s the only way my writing can really improve.

So I did the research and found two Writer’s Digest workshops I wanted to take. I couldn’t make up my mind, so I registered for them both. The one on writing a YA novel has nothing to do with my problem, but heck, it looked really cool. Plus the instructor is Gloria Kempton, who has written numerous articles and books on writing, and landed six figure deal for a YA series. Nice, huh? Fortunately I already had the textbook, Writing & Selling the YA Novel by K.L. Going.

The YA course started last week, and I’ve been working hard on the assignments. The other one will start in three weeks. I’ll get tons of feedback on my novel from published authors and from my class mates. Plus I can ask about the issue the agent pointed out.

And speaking of the agent. We somehow ended up having a conversation after I thanked her for her feedback. I mentioned I was going to take a workshop through Writer’s Digest and asked her if I could requery her afterwards (once I fix the problem). Normally I wouldn’t do that, but she’d been so supportive and encouraging about my novel. She was the one who told me not to give up it and to work on honing my craft some more. She was the one who inspired me to do whatever was necessary to become a better writer.

Her answer was yes!

So my question for you is: What steps have you taken to become a better writer? Remember, everything we do counts.

Update: I got back the comments on my first assignment which was based on a scene from my novel. I kicked some heavy duty butt on it. Yay!

Contests! Contests! Contests!

I have two great contests you definitely don’t want to miss:

You can win the book Paranolmacy by Kiersten White, due out in September, and a fifty page critique by Wernoika Janczuk. Wenoika is an intern at a major literary agency. What more could you ask for?

And

Check out Steena Holmes’ blog at Chocolate Reality for more info on her contest. Just make sure you polish your opening paragraph first.

My regular Wednesday writing post will be delayed 'till Thursday. See you then.

Tip # 64: Breathtaking Waterfalls

Last week I talked about making the most of the water in a scene when taking a picture. This week I want to discuss how to take cool shots like this one.

It’s simple, but you’ll need a tripod or something solid, like a rock, to keep your camera steady and at the correct height. Then adjust the camera to a slow shutter speed like I described in this post. If you use a fast shutter speed, you’ll freeze the movement of the water, but you won’t get the smooth effect shown here. Experiment with different speeds, but generally the slower the better. You'll also want to check out this post first.

If you’re lucky *waves at Nisa* and live near the ocean, try using both a fast and slow shutter speed during a storming day, and see the amazing pictures you’ll get when the wave surges. You’ll have to get close to capture the effect. Just try not to drown when the wave hits.