An Intriguing Excerpt from My Tethered Soul by Dorothy Dreyer

The second book in the Reaper’s Rite series releases in just over a month. I don’t know if you’re as excited as I am, but I thought I’d share an excerpt that I hope intrigues you.

***

I quickly found the girls’ bathroom and pushed the door open, glad that the school staff was considerate enough to keep this light on.

“Naomi?”

I bent down to peek under the stall doors, but didn’t see any feet. Maybe she ran into someone and had to stop and chat. I was sure she would be along soon, so I checked my hair.

I tucked a stray hair back in place, humming the song that Gavin and I had danced to. Like a soft breeze, a whisper caught my ear.

“Hello?” I turned toward the stalls. Had I missed someone’s feet? I bent down, but saw nothing. “Is … someone in here?”

I took a few steps forward, the sound of my heels on the tile floor echoing in my ears. I was probably just imagining the whisper. After all, I’d just gone from the loud gym to the quiet bathroom. My ears were simply adjusting to the noise variance. Weren’t they?

But I had to check. I couldn’t let it go. Rubbing my sweaty hands on my dress, I licked my lips, trying to muster up some moisture in my otherwise dry mouth. Holding my breath, I put my hand on the first stall door.

“Hello?” I called once more, just to be sure. It wouldn’t be out of the question that a student had passed out drunk in there after indulging in too much spiked punch. At least, that’s what I was trying to convince myself.

When no one answered, I shoved at the stall door. It banged against the inside wall and ricocheted back at me. But the stall was empty. I peered at the remaining stall doors: there were four more. Swallowing back the grit in my throat, I went to the next door. Was I really doing this? There had to be an easier, quicker way.

Of course there was.

I took two steps back and concentrated on the remaining doors. Focusing on the air in the room—as stale as it was—I pushed my energy toward the doors, willing the air to drive them open. My body buzzed with magic, and suddenly a wind swept through the space. All doors flew open at once.

***

And here’s another bit of intrigue for you. Who will win a $30 Amazon gift code? Enter and find out. It could be you!

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Tips for Fast Drafting from Kelly Hashway

I used to be the writer who thought everyone who participated in NaNoWriMo was insane for writing a book that quickly. I didn’t think I could ever do it. But then everything changed. I discovered fast drafting and I’ve never looked back. Fast drafting is where you write large word counts each day and get the manuscript drafted in a very short period of time. My record is eight days for an 80K manuscript. Crazy? Not really.

Here’s my tip for getting those words out and quickly. Set specific writing time each day and keep your fingers moving. You can train yourself to be creative on cue. Yes, you heard me right. You can train your brain to respond to writing at certain times of the day. I know I am going to write from 9:00am to 2:40pm when my daughter is in school. My brain expects to have to be in writing mode during that time, and it is. Does that mean I never get stuck and stare at a blank screen? No. I’m only human. But I have a tip for that, too. When you’re fast drafting you can’t tolerate writer’s block. When I get stuck, I skip whatever is holding me up and jump ahead. If I’m really feeling in a slump, I’ll write the ending or the climax because I know those parts and they get me excited about the story all over again. After that, I find I can go back and work through the part that was tripping me up earlier.

Also, when you’re fast drafting, don’t go back and edit what you’ve already written. It’s about constantly moving forward and typing new words until the manuscript is complete. Like I said, I thought I’d never be able to write like this. Now, I can’t imagine writing any other way. And fast drafting doesn’t just help me to get the manuscript written. I find that during revisions, I’m pleased by how well the story flows because of the pace in which it was written. Things stay fresh in your mind, and gaps or inconsistencies that can result from writing a manuscript over the course of months aren’t there anymore.

So, give fast drafting a try and see if you surprise yourself the way I did.

About Kelly:

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: http://www.kellyhashway.com.

Editor Interview: Karen Grove

As part of the Entangled Family, I write for two lines. The first is for YA and more recently the Embrace line, which is the sickest publisher of New Adult fiction out there. Lots of awesome titles are coming from this imprint. Including a little known novel called IMPULSE.

Since I'm part of the Embrace line and love writing all things New Adult, I sent an email to our awesome Editorial Director and boldly demanded an interview. Instead of firing me, she actually said yes! Lesson: You never know if you'll get something if you don't ask.

So, let's get on with the interview, shall we?

Gather 'round and welcome to the blog the amazing, the luminous Karen Grove! *applause*

Kate Evangelista: My readers (many of them aspiring authors) would like to get to know you better for stalking purposes. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you found your way to Entangled.

Karen Grove: For stalking purposes, eh? I think my age is going to show on this one. I’ve been around publishing since 1982…starting as a book design intern at St. Martin’s Press. I then moved to Hearst Magazines, where I was a junior print buyer and then a production assistant. Then, in 1984, I moved from NY to CA, and spent a year as a production assistant at Academic Press. When Harcourt created their Gulliver Books children’s imprint, I moved over there as an editorial assistant, working my way up through the ranks to Senior Editor, working on board books, picture books, nonfiction, middle-grade, and young adult. For the past 20 years, however, I’ve concentrated in young adult fiction, which has always been my love. Over these years, I received some wonderful submissions that were just a bit too old for YA yet not what we would consider “adult” fiction. With no place for them on the bookstore shelves or means to get the word out, I sadly had to decline them for publication. Today, I’m absolutely thrilled that New Adult is finally being recognized, and I’m doubly thrilled that Entangled has embraced this category and is making a home for these wonderful stories.

KE: Alright, let’s get into the nitty of this interview. How would you define New Adult as a genre? How is it different from YA?

KG: I don’t really consider New Adult a genre. It’s more of a category—just as YA is a category—covering a wide variety of genres, such as romance, contemporary, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, suspense, historical, etc. YA and NA are very much tied together, the main difference being the perspective from which the story is told. NA is a time between high school and adulthood, where young people are legally adults but still testing the waters of just what that means. They deal with many of the same issues of identity and exploration faced in YA, but there’s a stronger sense of breaking away from parents, discovering one’s future, and taking on greater responsibilities. The NA protagonist’s world is bigger, and there’s more experience behind a character’s decisions and thought processes…and a lot more independence.

KE: A few years ago, YA was everyone’s darling category. It seemed like every author had to write something YA. Now, YA’s naughtier older sister has made herself known. What do you think is the reason for the sudden resurgence of New Adult?

KG: I think there has always been a need and desire for NA fiction—as an editor, I saw these manuscripts come across my desk, and a lot of them were worthy of publication. The problem was that there was no way to sell it. Bookstores didn’t have an NA section (and most still don’t), and so there was never a clear picture for how to shelve these titles—adult or teen—and get them into the hands of their intended audience. Placing them in either section risked their being lost. After all, there were no review journals for this category, either, so how would readers find out about them? It was a risk for print publishers to take them on; in what was already a risky business. But with the rise of digital publishing and a wide variety of online review sources and bloggers, there was finally a way for people to learn about these books. Publishers didn’t have to sink tons of money into printing books as a “test” to see if there was truly a market for these books. And they could get the word out about them without having to invest in pricey ads. More than any other factor, the digital world finally made NA fiction a possibility. And now print publishers and bookstores are listening.

KE: Just because you make your character’s age eighteen and above does that make the story NA?

KG: Not at all. The age of the main character is merely a guideline. We like our NA characters to be 18-24 years old—just as most YA fiction prefers characters from 14-18, and in high school. But for both categories, those are simply guidelines. What makes the stories YA or NA is more the approach the author—and the main character—takes in viewing his or her world and the decisions that must be made. I have received manuscripts that “feel” YA with 21-year-old protagonists; those characters must be aged down. And there are manuscripts with 17-year-old protagonists that need to be aged up for the way they approach their world. Does this mean that there aren’t mature teens or immature adults? No. But for a story to be successful, the character’s age, voice, world, experience, and decisions must all work together to create a believable story.

KE: What about the popularity of the contemporary romance genre in NA? Why does it seem to work better for NA than for YA? I’m basing my question on the number of NA novels topping the Amazon Top 100 List compared to YA, especially in ebooks. Not that I watch this list on an almost daily basis, of course.

KG: LOL. I think contemporary romance was the natural place for NA fiction to begin. Emerging adults are in the throes of discovering their sexuality, and there is a limit on what can be explored in teen fiction. There are a number of reasons for this: some teens are not yet emotionally ready for explorations of the sexual kind, school libraries do not want these books on their shelves for obvious reasons, and what we call “gatekeepers” are very much in play in YA fiction. As they should be. New Adult fiction has allowed a voice for this tumultuous period in people’s lives—where exploration, conflicts, and, yes, mistakes are made, and survived. Readers want to read about others going through similar trials. And I think one of the reasons for the success of NA is that the audience is so broad: teens reading “up”, readers from 18-24, and adults touching base with their younger years. They say that no matter how old we get, we still think of ourselves as we were in our twenties.

KE: NA versus Adult. When do we know we’re crossing the line? How far can New Adult test the boundaries in terms of storylines without venturing into the Adult genre?

KG: Crossing the line truly depends on the perspective. A story about 18-24 year olds told from the point of view of an older—or younger—woman or man is crossing the line. The viewpoint must be youthful and without the benefit of years of experience, yet old enough to have developed a stronger sense of identity and responsibility than a teen. After all, these protagonists are experiencing many of these things for the first time. Just as in YA or Adult, the voice must believably reflect the age and life experiences of the main character. In terms of storylines, NA is all about testing boundaries; the only boundaries are set by the voice and point of view.

KE: As the editorial director of Embrace, the sickest imprint specializing in NA (and I’m not just saying this because Impulse is part of this imprint), what are you looking for in a submission? What kind of New Adult manuscript will call to you?

KG: Yes…we’re the sickest imprint specializing in NA, though I may be biased. :-) For me, personally, voice is always the element I look for. It must be strong, unique, and bring the characters to life. A strong voice gives a character legs. It allows that character to walk down any street and feel “real”; to find themselves in any situation and be true to their heart; to relate to themselves and others consistently and with conviction. I’m looking for NA fiction in all genres—romance, suspense/thrillers, mystery, urban fantasy, paranormal, contemporary. At this moment, I’m especially looking for contemporaries…college stories, stories with MCs who choose to enter the workforce rather than go to college, protagonists taking a gap year, entering the military, floundering after high school, struggling to define themselves as adults. Whatever the story, I’m looking for characters who leap off the page with powerful voice.

KE: What are your goals for the Embrace line? What do you envision for its future?

KG: My goal for the Embrace line is to release strong, quality fiction that readers can relate with; that young readers can see themselves in or test the waters, so to speak, vicariously; that older readers can feel themselves drawn back in time to relive the feelings of their past. I want our books to embrace the endless possibilities and potential that beckons to emerging adults, showing the failures and triumphs, heartaches and joy, relationships and independence that each person experiences throughout their lives. And I want Embrace to be known for giving a damn good read.

KE: Now, last question. If my enterprising friends would, let’s say, want to submit to the Embrace line, what do they need to know besides what’s on the website before flooding the Submittable? Can you give us some inside scoop?

KG: Inside scoop, eh? Hmmm. Simple: Make sure you have a great story. :-) Too easy? Well, a few suggestions: You can be assured that all manuscripts that come into Embrace are read, but the key is creating a great cover pitch so that more than one editor chooses to read your story in full. The more eyes, the more chances that your story will resonate with just the right editor who will want to champion your book. And make sure you’ve gone over your manuscript and eliminated typos and grammatical issues as much as possible. No one expects a perfectly clean manuscript, but with each typo, odd sentences left over from a previous revision, and contradictions, the more likely the reader will be jarred out of your story. You have a captive audience, don’t allow these “speed bumps” to disrupt your pacing.

KE: Thank you so much for gracing us with your virtual presence today! We learned a ton. Do you have any final nuggets of wisdom as an editor of New Adult for all our readers out there?

KG: Be proud of yourself as an NA writer, and strive to stretch your wings. New Adult is in its infancy and you’re a pioneer. As such it’s up to you to test the waters, expand and define the category, write the rules. The possibilities are endless. Above all, band together with other New Adult writers and create a support system for one another. NA began with word of mouth, and it will grow even stronger with word of mouth. Praise one another, cheer for your fellow NA writers, share your love for the category. For with each NA title that garners success, that reflects favorably on you and your stories. NA is here to stay…and it’s all because of you.

I love this interview. Karen really gets into the heart of New Adult and I'm so proud to be working with her as an author in the Embrace line. 

It's my hope that through this interview Karen and I were able to inspire all of you to keep on writing and reading! New Adult is a fun category and I can't wait to share with everyone what I'm working on. 

Do you have an NA manuscript looking for a home? Well, click here for the Embrace Guidelines and submit today.

-- Kate Evangelista, author of Taste (Crescent Moon Press), Reaping Me Softly & Unreap My Heart, (Omnific Publsihing), and Til Death (Entangled Teen)

Connect with Kate Evangelista
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Dear Author Dearest

     Plotting or pantsing?

One question that has come up at nearly every meeting, panel, or workshop I’ve been a part of has been the issue of plotting novels (planning the story ahead of time) versus writing on the fly or “pantsing,” as in writing by the seat of your pants.

Now, my first instinct is to come snapping at you a la Westside Story and whisper “Outline!”

Jazz hands! 

After all, I have completed six novels (of varying quality) by outlining, and I have completed zero novels by pantsing. Therefore, plotting is the correct answer.

It’s the correct answer for me, Jessica Hawke. It works for me and my brain, which desperately needs structure. My pre-writing process borders on excessive. I go through a brainstorming stage with index cards, lay out a physical storyboard, and then create an outline from that. Just for reference, the outline of the book I’m working on right now is about nine pages, just over 4200 words. 

This is an example of a storyboard I did for a YA novel a few years ago.

(Before getting into my argument for why plotting is awesome, I’m going to just mention that I use the term “outline” and “plot” pretty much interchangeably.)

Contrary to popular belief, doing all this work ahead of time doesn’t suck the magic out of the story. While the map metaphors for outlining are a bit overused at this point, they’re apt. When I go on a road trip, I want to know where I’m going. I turn on the GPS, enter my destination, and then I follow the directions. I deviate only if absolutely necessary.

And shockingly, it doesn’t ruin the trip! It’s comforting to know that I will eventually get to where I’m going. Along the way, I can enjoy the scenery. I can even pull off the road if I see something that interests me, because I know how to get back on track to my destination.

The same goes with writing. I would much rather hash out the details of structure in a smaller form. Outlining and storyboarding give you a literal birds’ eye view of the story. It’s much less distressing to trash five pages of an outline than to trash fifty thousand words of prose.

Novels are long-form stories. They are not the sort of work where you get a spark of an idea over morning coffee and have a completed story on paper by suppertime. And unless you have an incredible innate sense of story structure, it’s very difficult to shape a satisfying, engaging story that encompasses upwards of sixty thousand words.

To quote one of my favorite writers, Chuck Wendig: 

Your story hasn’t proven itself, but an outline serves as the proving grounds. You take the story and break it apart before you even begin — so, by the time you do put the first sentence down, you have confidence in the tale you’re about to tell. Confidence is the writer’s keystone; an outline can lend you that confidence. 

This is where I will give my advice, and you can take it with a grain or ten of salt. If you find yourself struggling to finish a novel, or you get stuck in the middle and don’t know where to go, then consider plotting. Consider this tidbit from NYT and USA Today bestseller Melissa de la Cruz: 

So many unpublished first (or second or third or 44th) novels begin halfway through the book because the writer has spent the first 150 pages giving us the background story instead of starting with THE STORY. Know your characters inside and out, where they came from, where they want to go, so that when you begin writing the book, you already know how they will act/react to events in the story. 

The good news is that there are as many ways to outline as there are writers. You don’t have to write a nine-page outline. You might just need to come up with the major story beats and go from there. For instance, Finding Nemo: 

Nemo’s mom dies, Marlin left single dad

•  Nemo goes to school field trip, gets taken on the boat
•  Marlin follows Nemo; meets Dory along way
•  Nemo makes friends in fish tank; finds out crazy niece Darla is going to take him
•  Marlin and Dory find where Nemo is and pursue
•  Wacky hijinx
•   Family reunited

I haven’t included all the fun details about Bruce the shark, or the pelican, or the great scenes in the fishtank. But this outline hits most of the major story beats.

What if your story veers in a different direction? Does that ever happen? Absolutely. I don’t plan out every single detail, and sometimes as I get to know my characters and learn how they think, then I realize that they probably wouldn’t do what I originally planned. It can also happen that I’m fifty thousand words in and suddenly realize that I have driven myself into a giant plot hole. Usually I catch them in planning, but every once in a while I miss one. In that case, I reconsider my outline and decide if it needs to change. I have removed scenes or added scenes to my outline mid-story. And that’s okay! Think of it as taking a wrong turn. Your GPS pipes up and says… “Recalculating.” You’ll still get where you’re going, just not the exact way you expected.

So, to wrap things up, I’m going to leave you with some homework reading.

• Advice for Young Writers – Melissa de la Cruz (http://melissa-delacruz.com/index.php/info/advice/)
• 25 Things You Should Know About Outlining – Chuck Wendig (http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/05/14/25-things-you-should-know-about-outlining/)
• Writer’s Digest: To Plan or To Plunge? (http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/to-plan-or-to-plunge-outlining-debate)

Until next time, write on!

-- Jessica Hawke, author of Phantom Touch, Crescent Moon Press.

Connect with Jessica Hawke

Website | Blog  | Twitter | Facebook

If you have a question for Dear Author Dearest, email darklydeliciousya(at)gmail(dot)com with Dear Author Dearest in the subject line.

A Darkly Delicious Detail About Who R U Really? by Margo Kelly

The book jacket reads: “Ripped from a true-life story of Internet stalking, Who R U Really? will excite you and scare you, as Thea’s life spins out of her control.”

I *hope* after people have had a chance to read Who R U Really? (available 9/18/14) they will ask me, “What scenes actually happened in real life?”

Because I’m telling you, life is stranger than fiction, and often times things that truly happen would not be believable in a novel.

This story went through countless revisions, and so many times a reader, agent, or editor would say, “This is too unbelievable. This needs to be revised so it’s more realistic.” And in my head, I’d respond, “But that actually happened.”

Many of the scenes that really happened in our lives were softened up to make them more believable. But some of the remaining scary scenes actually happened, and … some did not. I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone, so I won’t give away any secrets today, but please after you’ve had a chance to read it, ask me which scenes really happened. It was scary when we went through it in real life, and for me and my daughter, it’s almost as scary to read about it again in print. The good news is: at least she’s still around to read it at all.

About Margo Kelly:

Margo Kelly loves to be scared (except when it comes to her children’s safety!) but otherwise, she 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.

Margo is a native of the Northwest and currently resides in Idaho. A veteran public speaker, Margo is now actively pursuing her love of writing. Who R U Really? is her debut novel and will be published by Merit Press September 2014. Margo welcomes opportunities to speak to youth groups, library groups, and book clubs.

You can find Margo here:

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter

You can pre-order her book here:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Writing Tip: ADD INTRIGUE TO YOUR STORY by KYM BRUNNER

Sounds hard, but it's not. Here's my tip in a nutshell:

Make a list of things that intrigue you. Yeah, that’s right. What was something you encountered recently that YOU thought was cool, interesting, gross, unbelievable, extremely weird, or compelling? Go ahead…think of two things now. I’ll wait.

You see how easy that was?

Incorporating things you hear and see every day that interest you probably means it will interest someone else too. Not that you have to build your entire story around that one thing, but you could give that quality to one of your minor characters.
 
I often see something on TV or overhear a conversation that makes me say, “Whoa. What's that all about?” Like a few weeks ago when I was watching the Lisa Ling show, Our America, when she had a story about a little boy who was definitely 100% "girl-brained."

I'd have to say that story definitely intrigued me.

Now I might not be the person to write a transgender story, but perhaps I could use this information in some other way in a story I'm writing. Maybe the daughter of a co-worker is considering a transgender operation, or maybe a sibling has been playing with dolls...who knows?

In any case, I write down any tidbits on my NOTES on my phone, so they I can use those ideas later in a future story. I might jot down a funny line I’ve overheard, like recently when my college-aged daughter said that a cheese sample at the grocery store tasted like regurgitated gym shoe. (I mean, tasting like a gym shoe is bad enough, but a regurgitated one? Ick!)  Could be a funny line for a character to say some day.

A word of advice: write clear notes. Sometimes I look at my intriguing tidbits and think, "Huh?" Like the note that said: THE ANGEL AND THE MAN IN THE MOON, which I guess I thought was super interesting but have absolutely no idea what I was referring to. If you know, please tell me because I'm curious, too.


Kym Brunner

Wanted: Dead or in Love, Merit Press, May 2014
One Smart Cookie, Omnific Publishing, Spring 2014


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Bio:
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.