Making Your Characters Go Dark by Kelly Hashway

When The Monster Within was acquired by Spencer Hill Press, my editor had a suggestion for Ethan, the male lead. She wanted me to make him darker. Sam is already a dark character since she comes back from the dead as a killer—though not by choice. Darkness lurks inside of her. But Ethan was pretty perfect. He loved Sam so much that he found a way to bring her back after she died of cancer at seventeen. My editor wanted to see some darkness in Ethan, too.

At first, I screamed, “No! Ethan is supposed to be the perfect good guy!” I didn’t know how I would make him darker without losing who he is. He’s totally in love with Sam. And that’s when I realized that his love for Sam would be his inspiration for darkness. He loves her so much that he’ll do anything to save her. Even if it’s…you guessed it, dark.

So Ethan went through a major change from when the book was contracted to now, just a few weeks from the release (June 17^th). And the best part was that it was actually fun to create this dark side to Ethan’s personality. It gave him more layers and set up some awesome things for the sequel, The Darkness Within (June 2, 2015). Who knew darkness could be so good? ;)

The moment seventeen-year-old Samantha Thompson crawls out of her grave, her second chance at life begins. She died of cancer with her long-time boyfriend, Ethan, by her side—a completely unfair shot at life. But Ethan found a way to bring her back, like he promised he would. Only Sam came back wrong.

She's now a monster that drains others' lives to survive. And after she kills, she’s tortured by visions—glimpses into her victims would-have-been futures had she not killed them. Barely able to live with herself and trying to make things right, Sam ends up a pawn in a vicious game of payback within the local coven of witches.

But when the game reveals what Ethan had to do to save Sam, she must make a choice that will change all their lives forever.

Title: The Monster Within

Author: Kelly Hashway

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

ISBN:  978-1-937053-85-7

Release Date: 6/17/2014

Formats: Paper, e-book 


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Kelly Hashway grew up reading R.L. Stein’s Fear Street novels and writing stories of her own, so it was no surprise to her family when she majored in English and later obtained a masters degree in English Secondary Education from East Stroudsburg University. After teaching middle school language arts for seven years, Hashway went back to school and focused specifically on writing. She is now the author of three young adult series, one middle grade series, and several picture books. She also writes contemporary romance under the pen name Ashelyn Drake. When she isn’t writing, Hashway works as a freelance editor for small presses as well as for her own list of clients. In her spare time, she enjoys running, traveling, and volunteering with the PTO. Hashway currently resides in Pennsylvania with her husband, daughter, and two pets. Visit her website: www.kellyhashway.com.

The Dark Deliciousness of WORKING WITH EDITORS By Kate Evangelista

            In high school, I wrote without any thought to editing. Using my father’s electric typewriter (and I’m totally showing my age here), I wrote whatever popped into my head. Well, let me clarify. I start with a story in mind then write what comes naturally to me in connection to the story. Afterwards, horrible spelling and wrong grammar notwithstanding, I’d bind my stories and bring them to school for my classmates to read. No editing necessary.

            Starting my writing career this way helped and hindered me. It helped because today I’m able to construct my novels a chapter at a time based on an overarching storyline. I have a beginning and I have the end then I fill in the blanks in the middle. This assures a tighter plotline. For me, anyway. It hindered because I had no concept of editing whatsoever. This messes with the ego because I automatically thought my work didn’t need changing. It’s not perfect, but that’s how I intended to create it. Budding writers out there don’t start out this way. *wags finger*

            This terrible mindset followed me well into my early twenties. I stood by my work and hardly listened to anyone’s feedback. Maybe this is also because the critique groups I did participate in would nitpick rather than give actual constructive criticism. Oh, they thought they were being constructive. Hell, I thought so too. It’s only now after working with a variety of editors that I can distinguish between what is considered constructive (i.e. what will help improve the story) versus your run of the mill nitpicking (i.e. the negative stuff).

            For some of you who might not know yet, I’m currently published by three different publishers. This is no accident. I intentionally submitted to different publishers because I wanted to learn more about my craft. Working with as many editors as possible certainly helps.

            Many writers abhor the editing process for many different. I’ve seen many cry over it. I understand it can be intimidating and that comments can be seen as criticism of one’s work. I’ve come to believe that editing is the best part of the process. It can be taxing, for sure. But it is also the most rewarding because you already have something to work with.

            Let me elaborate.

            When writing, you’re forced to fill a blank page with words. Basically, you need to translate what’s in your head onto paper. With editing, you already have everything on paper, which takes the edge off. Now your job becomes improving on what you already have. And the best thing about it is you have an editor who helps guide you in the right direction.

            For my debut novel, Taste, the comments of my editor for the first two pages alone were longer than the actual two pages. In fact, every sentence had multiple comments attached to them. Here’s a picture of what I mean:

            Looking at this picture today doesn’t fail to bring out a cold sweat in me. How I survived that initial editing process is beyond my reasoning skills. But I can honestly say that my editor really helped make my writing better. Many readers don’t get a glimpse of what goes on during the editing of a novel. The final product you have in your hands is leaps and bounds beyond how it all started.

            Now, let me show you a picture of the first two pages of Savor, one of my latest novels, during the editing stage:

            Here you no longer see any comments, just some tweaks by my editor on some of the sentences. Taste is my debut and Savor is my sixth novel (fifth to be published). The difference in editing is vastly obvious because each of the editors I’ve worked with since my debut helped me hone my craft. If you want to see the progression of the improvement in my writing based on editing, this is how you should read my novels: start with Taste then move on to Reaping MeSoftly then to Til Death followed by Romancing the Bookworm before Unreap My Heart and end with Savor. The dates of publishing vary, with Til Death being the most recent release. But like what I mentioned above, Savor is my latest in terms of what I’ve written and edited (it shows the most improvement).

            With each novel I write, I try my best not to make the same mistakes that my editors have pointed out in previous novels. Of course, there’s no such thing as a novel that doesn’t need editing. From experience, the process gets easier because when you know better you do better (ßMaya Angelou quote).

            So, working with editors is actually awesome. They are there to support you as a writer and help you improve your craft and nourish your talent. They are also there to push your limits, demand better of you, and show you avenues into the story you didn’t think possible during the writing process.

            In short, I’m an editing junkie. I want more. No. Need more.     

Kate Evangelista

Taste, Crescent Moon Press, April 2012
Reaping Me Softly, Omnific Publishing, October 2012
Unreap My Heart, Omnific Publsihing, September 2013
Til Death, Entangled Teen, March 2014

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When Kate Evangelista was told she had a knack for writing stories, she did the next best thing: entered medical school. After realizing she wasn't going to be the next Doogie Howser, M.D., Kate wandered into the Literature department of her university and never looked back. Today, she is in possession of a piece of paper that says to the world she owns a Literature degree. To make matters worse, she took Master's courses in creative writing. In the end, she realized to be a writer, none of what she had mattered. What really mattered? Writing. Plain and simple, honest to God, sitting in front of her computer, writing. Today, she lives in the Philippines and writes full-time.

If you want to know more about this quirky writer who loves romance and fantasy and everything in between, click here.

Ten Tried and True CURES FOR WRITER'S BLOCK by Jessica Hawke

Writer’s block is to writers as a bum knee is to an athlete. Things are going great, and then BOOM, you’re on the bench with a bad case of the block. They’ll announce you on the ticker: Dear Writer, Out for 6 Chapters w/ Writer’s Block.

I think we all encounter writer’s block to some extent, but there are some ways to help defend yourself against this crippling condition.

You’ll need to do the writer’s version of stretching and calisthenics. Just like athletes prepare their bodies before getting on the field, you can prepare your writing muscles. By doing some plotting and planning early on, I often find that I can stave off writer’s block when I’m in thick of writing. When I get stuck, I always go back to the playbook – the mighty outline.

That said, I still sometimes experience that paralysis while creating the outline itself:

What happens next?

And it’s scary! Because you, dear Writer, are a font of creativity, a veritable force of nature. When you reach any given point in a book, anything can happen. Anything. So to determine that one particular path is actually quite scary.

When you get to that stage, whether it’s in the outline stage or in the actual process of writing your novel, there are a number of strategies I’ve tried. (There are hundreds more out there if none of these work for you!)

1.     Go back and reread some of what you’ve written. Resist the urge to start fixing and adjusting the work. But sometimes reading what you’ve done can light the fire again and get you back on track with where you were headed.

2.     Talk to your characters. Go somewhere that people won’t try to call the men in white coats for you (or just pretend you’re on a Bluetooth earpiece) and have a conversation with the characters. Don’t just ask them about what they had for breakfast. Ask them what they want – what they need – to happen. What are they going to try next to get it?

3.     Forget about picking the One Perfect Scene. Start brainstorming. What could happen next? Jot it down, no matter how stupid it seems. You might come up with something brilliant somewhere between ninja monkey attack and alien invasion.

4.     Revisit your outline. (I hope you have one!) It’s the playbook, and it’s powerful.

5.     Skip the scene you’re on. I’m a big fan of simply putting … [Main character makes call to friend] or something else to tell me what I needed to accomplish there, and then moving on. Obviously if you’re pantsing it, that’s not going to work so well. But if you have an outline and you’re just a little stumped on how a certain scene plays out, give yourself permission to go on to something you do have a grasp on.

What if none of that works? You’re still just as stumped as ever, and you’re riding the pine, wistfully watching the other writers whiz through their latest WIP. Think outside the box. My next set of suggestions require you to set your work aside for a while.

On the occasions that I find myself blocked, it’s usually because I’m overthinking and stressing out about what I’m writing. In those cases, the brain needs to relax. If you can focus on something else for a while, your little brain monkeys will keep processing your story in the background.

6.     Get outside. Go for a walk, go shopping, anything that gives you a change of scenery. You could go to your favorite coffee shop and write, but if that doesn’t help, go do something that isn’t writing. (I like walking around Target, but that gets expensive!)

7.     Get some exercise. I do a lot of great brainstorming while exercising. You can focus on what your body is doing while your brain wanders, not to mention the health benefits! The exercise will also help release tension and stress, which may loosen you up writing-wise.

8.     Cue up a playlist of music that inspires you. Don’t force it. If the words aren’t coming, forcing yourself to listen to your book’s “theme song” on repeat for seventeen hours isn’t going to make things better. But try finding music that goes with your book. You’ll know when you find a special one, because you can’t stop listening to it.

9.     Read a book or watch a movie. The cheesier and more guilty-pleasure it is, the better.

10.  Take a nap. Some dream research suggests that if you’re thinking about a problem before you go to sleep, your brain processes it while you sleep, and you’ll wake up with a solution or at least a piece of the puzzle.

The important thing to realize about writer’s block is that it is, in fact, in your head. All sports analogies aside, it’s not an injury or a disease. It cannot have any more power of you than you allow. It’s simply a situation that arises, and you can overcome it by force of will. I do not believe in a mystical Muse that comes and whispers genius into my head. I believe in working persistently at something. So if you find yourself with a case of writer’s block, don’t wait around for it to magically go away. Take action, don’t quit, and you’ll be back on the field in no time.

Jessica Hawke

Phantom Touch, Crescent Moon Press, November 2013

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Jessica Hawke is the author of the YA paranormal Phantom Touch and an upcoming urban fantasy series. While she would love to say that she's been writing for her entire life, that simply wasn't the case. After a brilliant stint as a story-writer in third grade, she mostly kept to writing papers for school until she headed off to college. From eighteen onward, she spent too much time thinking about the book she might eventually write instead of just writing it. At twenty-six, she finally realized the book would not write itself and got down to the surprisingly difficult yet rewarding work of writing a novel. Her favorite genres to read and write are urban fantasy, dystopian, and paranormal. When she is not writing, she works as a middle school teacher, which is often stranger than fiction.

Putting First Lines to the Test by Margo Kelly

Reading a novel is a treat, an escape, a joyride, an amazing adventure; and it begins with one sentence. The first line of a story can captivate me or lose me. And my favorite first lines are the ones that are story specific … meaning: that first sentence could not be used to start any other story but this one. Also, I love a first line that poses questions, creates tension, and makes me want to read more … immediately!

I grabbed a few books off my bookshelf and tested them to see if they met the standards above, and I’m thrilled to say: YES, they did! I loved reading these books the first time, and I’ve kept them on my shelves so that I can enjoy reading them again. While these aren’t all examples from creepy dark young adult books, they do all have great first lines!

ESCAPE FROM EDEN by Elisa Nader: “False prophets!” the Reverend Elias Eden yelled into the dented microphone.

WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson: So she tells me, the words dribbling out with the cranberry muffin crumbs, commas dunked in her coffee.

SEIZE THE NIGHT by Dean Koontz: Elsewhere, night falls, but in Moonlight Bay it steals upon us with barely a whisper, like a gentle dark-sapphire surf licking a beach.

INCARCERON by Catherine Fisher: Finn had been flung on his face and chained to the stone slabs of the transitway.

STILL ALICE by Lisa Genova: Even then, more than a year earlier, there were neurons in her head, not far from her ears, that were being strangled to death, too quietly for her to hear them.

THE GIRL IN THE WALL by Daphne Benedis-Grab: What do you wear to the birthday party of your ex-best friend?

ALONG THE WAY HOME by Christi Corbett: Every Wednesday Kate stood on the same front porch, her hand poised inches from the door, willing herself to do the unthinkable – walk away without knocking.

So … my challenge to you: grab one of your all-time favorite books and put its first sentence to the test. Is it story specific? Does it pose questions, create tension, and make you want to read more?

Or … do you think the first line of a book doesn’t really matter overall?

Margo Kelly

Who RU Really? Merit Press, 2014
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 Margo Kelly loves to be scared … when she’s reading a good book, watching a good movie, or suffering from the hiccups. She loves writing thrillers for young adults and hopes her stories give you the goose bumps or the itchies or the desire to rethink everyday things. Margo is represented by the not-so-scary, but totally awesome, Brianne Johnson of Writers House.

Hungry for a chuckle? Check out a sample of Kym Brunner's ONE SMART COOKIE!

CHAPTER ONE

While hiding out in the back room of our family-owned Polish bakery, I spy my mother's therapist––the June issue of Cosmo––lying on a shelf next to the flour. I flip through it, searching for my favorite feature, the relationship quiz.

My mother’s voice terminates my bliss. “Sophie! Come here. It’s getting busy now.” Her Polish accent isn’t nearly as thick as my grandma's, but it’s still undeniable.

“Be right there!” It can’t be that big of a rush, so I’m staying put until I finish this month’s quiz, which is titled, “What’s Your Guy-Q?” Given that I’ve only gone on three dates in my sixteen years––one with a moron, one with a liar, and one with a perv––I’m pretty sure my knowledge of guys will rank somewhere between dumbass and totally clueless.

Source

Too bad my best friend Teegan wasn’t here now, because she’s had a smorgasbord of boyfriends. She’d ace this quiz for sure. Luckily, she tells me everything. I concentrate on what she’s confided to me in the past, zipping through the first eleven questions. I can’t believe how easy it is to figure out which answers will give me the highest points. If only school were this easy, I’d have straight B’s.

Five minutes later, Mom’s slacker alarm goes off. “Sophie, let’s go!”

“One second!” I answer the last question and tally up my points. Hmm…weird. A thirteen. Must be one of those quizzes where a low score is better. I scan the ratings on the bottom and see that a thirteen puts me into category D: In Desperate Need of Help. Thanks, Cosmo. I know that’s just another way of saying Shitty. How can I expect to snag a decent guy when my Guy-Q is the pits?

Guess I shouldn’t be too shocked. “Shitty” pretty much sums up my life, period. We live in a shitty apartment above our Polish bakery, my job is shitty, school is shitty except for off-campus lunch and my friends, my shitty father left when I was a bun in the oven, and the icing on the shit cake is that today is the first day of summer vacation and Cosmo says I won’t be changing my social media profile to In a Relationship anytime soon.

Source

I fling the magazine back onto the shelf. Screw Cosmo. I’m going to meet the perfect guy this summer and my Guy-Q will skyrocket to category A:  Professor of Loveology. Maybe even today, who’s to say? This morning at nine-thirty––okay, probably more like ten if we’re on Teegan-time––Teegan is going to pick me up in her kinda-old-but-still-gorgeous black convertible. We’re going to cruise to Oak Street Beach, find two boys who are also best friends, and double date all summer. And while I know that the likelihood of that happening is roughly equivalent to my mother randomly handing me fifty bucks, Teegan and I are determined to try. We’ve made double-dating our top priority this summer.

All we need are a pair of normal guys––one who wants a cute, sarcastic, medium-chested, five-foot-seven-inch blond with an average body, like me––while his friend is hoping for a petite, stunning, D-cup, perky brunette like Teegan. What’ll undoubtedly happen is that the tanned, gorgeous star of the baseball team with minty breath will fall for Teegan, while I’ll be stuck with his awkward, smelly buddy with Cheetos scum between his teeth.

What can I expect as a card-carrying member of Category D?

READ MORE THIS SUMMER - ARRIVING JULY 15th from Omnific Press!

***COVER UPDATE: Guess what?? One Smart Cookie's book cover is coming soon!! It's in the final stages and it's absolutely perfect!! *gazes off into space, smiling happily. Can't wait to show you.
Kym Brunner

Wanted: Dead or in Love, Merit Press, May 2014
One Smart Cookie, Omnific Publishing, Spring 2014
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Kym Brunner's method of creating a manuscript: write, procrastinate, sleep, repeat. She's addicted to Tazo chai tea, going to the movies, and reality TV. When she's not reading or writing, Kym teaches 7th grade full time. She lives in Arlington Heights with her family and two trusty writing companions, a pair of Shih Tzus named Sophie and Kahlua. She's repped by Eric Myers of The Spieler Agency.

Coping With Character Loss by Lisa M. Basso

Whether you work with an editor, a critique partner/group, or prefer to go it alone, editing can be a daunting task. I know for me it’s one of the most challenging parts of writing. And it becomes even tougher when you have a character that just isn’t pulling their weight

While you’re editing, let’s say you discover a cliché of a character has wandered into your scene, or one of your secondary characters is displaying some serious Mary Sue tendencies. Most of the time you can fix these little issues with one or two well-executed passes of edits. Other times though, you super awesome fun character isn’t really doing their job. They aren’t moving the story forward, helping—or hindering—the advancement of the plot. In short, they’re place holders that don’t belong. This is when you know it’s time to put up or shut up. Spend more time fixing, if it feels absolutely necessary, or it’s time for someone to be ripped from the pages.

Sometimes it’s painful to lose a character, so do what you need to here are the steps I go through if I find myself missing them a little too much.

Coping with Character Loss

1.)    Keep a back-up. Instead of deleting every trace of them, open up a new file and put everything you cut from that character in the new file. That way if you decide later on your original decision was a mistake, or you get nostalgic and want to say hi again, you can always go back. But not now. Now you need to push to the next step.

2.)    Move forward. Keep editing, work through the story without that character.

3.)    Repeat. Two edits are usually better than one. The first pass will go over the big things, number two is to iron out the wrinkles.

4.)    Stuck? When it gets really hard, dig into your best stash of chocolate, pop a bottle of wine, or if you so desire, break out the tequila margarita mix and power through.

5.)    The re-read. Once you’re done editing, read it though. Does it work better now without your dearly departed character? Hopefully so, if not, go back to your back-up and add him/her in where they need to go, then edit again.

6.)    The Final Goodbye. If the last read through goes better without your missing character but you still feel badly or miss them, throw them a funeral. Put on your best pair of black sweats/yoga pants/pjs (from the writer’s wardrobe, of course), grab a flower from your yard and say a few nice things—then maybe a few not-so-nice things (you did have to cut them after all). When you’re done, put them to rest and take a day off.

7.)    Repeat. In which I mean, always, always write more! Move on to your next project, brainstorm, prep your book for submission. Remember, it wasn’t your funeral. J

I hope some of these steps help you the next time you have to erase someone.