GRAPEMO update: I’m 1k away from my revised goal! At this rate, I may even be able to make my original goal. Here’s hoping. Especially since, as I was writing away last night, I got the feeling I’m closer to finishing my WIP than I originally thought.

Looking all cute & such

It took me awhile to dig through/edit the photos from the last Muse, but I think it was worth it. Here’s a few of my favorites.

Read on for more photos

Metainfo

After much pain, sweat, and toil (read: putting off writing the next scene in my WIP), I’ve completely revamped the Pop Books website. If you’re an author in need of site/design work, it’s the place to go.

Pop Color is next up on my redesign list, though I think I should finish my WIP before tackling that.

Photo editing 101

For the photographers out there – interested in how I edit my photos? Well I’m covering some photoshop basics (contrast, dodging & burning) in a webinar on March 28th. It’s part March’s event for the Muse Project. For all of $10, you get to see me in action!

Books and tumbles

I’m the proud winner of SAY THE WORD by Jeannine Garsee! She’s the awesome creator of GRAPEMO, which I’ve had the great pleasure of participating in this month. (We’re hopefully extending the Grapemo deadline a week. If so, maybe I can actually make my PWG.) My teaser was entered into a random drawing, and I won her book! Can’t wait to read it.

On another note, I’m officially in love with Tumblr and have setup my micro blog at feonua.tumblr.com. It’s full of weekly themed quotes, photo snippets and random thoughts. I need more people to follow–so if you have an account there, let me know and I’ll friend you.

Also, if you haven’t read it yet, Brina’s latest addition to Deciduus is beautiful.

Metainfo

If you haven’t yet, you should check out this week’s Teaser Tuesday. (Speaking of Grapemo, I’ll have to get some serious writing done tomorrow–I’m two days behind!) There’s also some great contests floating around the web this week, including…

Query magic

Elana Johnson (YA author) is running a query contest on her blog, offering a query letter critique from some very cool agents, namely:

1. Kate Testerman-Shafer of KT Literary (critique will be posted on her blog, Ask Daphne)
2. Michelle Andelman of Lynn C. Franklin Associates
3. Mary Kole of Andrea Brown Literary Agency
4. Michelle Wolfson of Wolfson Literary Agency
5. Joanna Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation

Visit her blog to enter.

Marketing ahoy

Shelli Johannes (MG/YA author) is also running a week long contest, which offers some great grand prizes:

Grand Prize Package #1 – The Unagented Writer Package is for those who currently DO NOT have an agent and want one. This includes:
- A lot of books on writing and querying
- A query/ 3 Chapter Critique by my awesome agent, Alyssa Eisner Henkin at Trident Media Group!!!!!!!

Grand Prize Package #2 – The Agented Writer Package is for those who do not want an agent, have an agent, are on submission, have a book deal, or are published. This includes:
- A lot of marketing books
- Free 2 hour consultation with me on marketing you and your book
- One free marketing item – design of a business card, bookmarker, postcard etc

Enter over at her blog.

You’ve got me wrapped around your finger

For everyone who read and loved SHIVER, Stiefvater has nine ARCs to give away. Nine!

In Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other.  Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack.  And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love — the light and the dark, the warm and the cold — in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.

Enter to win an advanced review copies of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie’s blog.

Metainfo

Today I had a scene I didn’t want to write.

I began it last night, but stopped before things went down, because a) I wasn’t sure exactly how everything would happen, and b) I’d met my word count for the day.

The scene: the MC confronts a relation at a very public, oh-lookit-the-community’s-all-here event. Yesterday, I kept running through my head all the options that would let MC off the hook–extricate herself without a huge public blowup. Her life really isn’t the public’s business, and she has more than enough on her plate already without having to deal with that kind of humiliation and stress. I found a solution that would do the trick, involving a different (and private) blow up later on.
It was all settled.

Except, when I woke up this morning, I knew it wasn’t.
The easy way out is, well, the easy way out, and there’s no way (in the world of my story) the MC’s relation wouldn’t throw the Screaming Fit From Hell. There just wasn’t.

I’m always saying that if you remain true to your characters, your story will write itself, because in any given situation there’s only so many ways your characters will act. They are who they are, this is how they behave, and if you want them to act differently you’ll have to change the situation–not the people.

So I sat at my computer with my coffee and headphones and wished myself anywhere else. Wishing my MC anywhere else–in a life where she didn’t have to go through this sticky, public hell.
But she isn’t, she just has her life.
And it’s not fair.
Or maybe it’s just me.
Because I made her deal.
The relation went from zero to sixty, bringing up resentments even I, as the author, didn’t know existed. The whole room went silent as everyone in the community got to hear a load of total, unjust bs about my MC, and I Hated. Every. Second. Of. It.

But I wrote it anyway, because that’s how it happened.

Because if her life was easy, my MC wouldn’t be who she is.

Because if she can’t overcome this, she’s not the person I take her for.

Metainfo

For young paranormal romance, SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater was excellent. Not necessarily because I was in love with either of the leads, but because they suited each other so well and I rooted for them all the way. Sweetness.

And the whole werewolf lore? Interesting. Of course, I’d take werewolves over vampires any day.

Checking out the author’s site, apparently SHIVER is the first of a trilogy. I’m not sure if I’m excited or…worried. I really enjoyed SHIVER, about would hate to watch it deteriorate as a series (Twilight anyone?).

Not exactly persuasive

I ran across ACCORDING TO JANE by Marilyn Brant on Amazon (before the whole Macmillan bit went down), and thought for some unknown reason it was YA. Instead, it’s an adult romance. Which is fine…except, well, if the whole I-slept-with-this-boy-once-in-High-School-and-then-hooked-back-up-with-him-when-I-was-34-despite-his-being-a-jerk story line is your thing. I found it depressing, even with the happy ending. If it meant to be a retelling of Persuasion, it missed (or miss-understood) that book.

(Read on: how could you miss Persuasion?)

Metainfo