In Which I've Been Tagged

So, as the title says, I've been tagged by the awesome Rena Rocford! Don't know her? Check her out because I already told you once she's awesome. And she is. I pretty much luuurve her and that's no lie.

Anyway, this is a "Talk about your process" game and I'm in, so here we go.

What are you working on right now?

What AREN'T I working on right now, right? Nah I'm just kidding. Mostly what I'm working on right now is MFA work and a new WIP. The WIP is cleverly titled WIP right now (because no matter how hard I try (like, maybe a medium amount?) I haven't been able to come up with even a working title for it. But I've been thinking of it as Howl's Moving Castle meets Sherlock Holmes, and whether it's actually like either of those things, I dunno, but it's got a boy who's a cavalry cadet and another boy who's got a demon living inside him, granting him magical powers, and there's a looming war and secret weapon plans that must be discovered and feels and junk.
So yeah, I'm liking it.
I'm only about 40K in. I wish I was farther, but what can you do?

My first MFA semester is allllmost done. Next week, actually. And then I have a small break until Semester 2 starts in early July. So right now I'm doing some voice work for my mentor Anne Ursu to finish out my semester.

How does my book differ from others in my genre?

Shit, these aren't like easy question are they? Hell, I don't know. Maybe if I was, like, done with it, I could tell you? Nah, probably not. I guess I would say it's not often you get cavalry cadets and wizard boys mixing it up together, so I guess my fantasy and world building is what separates it out.

Why do I write what I write?

Because it's fun, natch. And even though I love YA contemporary, I don't think I could ever write it because I'm sure I'd reach a point and write "and then the monsters show up" or something. I mean, the backdrop of teen emotions and drama is made even worse when you have to deal with magic and murder and some other clever "m" word I can't think of off the top of my head.
Mystery? meh.
So, yeah. I write it mostly because it's what I want to read. I think that's pretty much the most important reason to write anything, you know?

How does my writing process work?

Well.
I usually spend months brainstorming an idea. Thinking about characters. About specific scenes, all that fun stuff.
Then when it's marinated enough, I'll tackle the first 4-5 steps of the Snowflake Method. Mostly I'll just come up with a one sentence description of the book. Then a one paragraph description.
Then I'll come up with 4 disasters and an ending and plan out what the inciting incident is.
Then I'll work through the MCs motivations, goals conflicts and epiphany.
And finally, when all of that is done, I'll write a query. It doesn't have to be a great query, but I try to make it, you know, not shitty.
Finally part 2, I'll make a list of scenes, which functions as an outline for me, and I jump in.
Jumping in is usually pretty easy because during all of the pre-work I usually come up with an opening scene or at least an opening line, so I know where to start.
Then I'll write the whole thing, beginning to end, chronologically.
Bam. Draft one is done. And because I allow myself to edit every day, after I've hit my word count, my drafts are usually pretty clean, which means revising doesn't take me forever.
And that's my process in a nutshell.

And that's it! I have to tag someone and I'm going to tag Matt MacNish, because, you know, we're pals.

Wednesday Weird: The Green Children of Woolpit

The Green Children of Woolpit were two children who appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, UK, in the 12th century. The brother and sister had green colored skin, even though they appeared normal in all other ways. They spoke an unrecognized language and refused to eat anything other than pitch from bean pods.
Eventually, their skin lost its green color. After they learned English, they explained that they were from the “Land of St Martin,” which was a dark place because the sun never rose far above the horizon. They claimed that they were tending their father’s herd and followed a river of light when they heard the sounds of bells. Then they arrived in Woolpit

Read more at http://www.viralnova.com/unsolved-earth-mysteries/#cLzcUUPDF2XVuUuu.99

The Green Children of Woolpit were two children who appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, UK, in the 12th century. The brother and sister had green colored skin, even though they appeared normal in all other ways. They spoke an unrecognized language and refused to eat anything other than pitch from bean pods.
Eventually, their skin lost its green color. After they learned English, they explained that they were from the “Land of St Martin,” which was a dark place because the sun never rose far above the horizon. They claimed that they were tending their father’s herd and followed a river of light when they heard the sounds of bells. Then they arrived in Woolpit

Read more at http://www.viralnova.com/unsolved-earth-mysteries/#cLzcUUPDF2XVuUuu.99

In the 12th century in Suffolk, England, two children appeared in the village of Woolpit beside one of the wolf pits the village was named after.

They were brother and sister, and though they looked pretty normal, they had green skin, wore strange clothing, and spoke an unknown foreign language.

The people of the village tried to take care of them, but the children refused all food for the first few days until they were finally offered bean pods.

After some time, they learned to eat other foods and when they did, they lost the green color to their skin. The boy was sickly, though, and died shortly after he and his sister were baptized.

After she learned English, the girl, dubbed Agnes, explained that they had come from "St. Martins Land" which was a dark place because the sun never rose far above the horizon and where everything was green. She said that they had ben tending their father's herd when they heard a loud noise, possibly the bells of Bury St Edmunds, and suddenly found themselves standing by the wolf pit.

Sign for Woolpit, created in 1977

The girl would eventually be employed as a servant in Richard de Calne's household where it was reported that she was "vey wanton and impudent". She eventually married and moved away from Woolpit.

So there you go. Kind of a weird little story. Thoughts or theories?

The Green Children of Woolpit were two children who appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, UK, in the 12th century. The brother and sister had green colored skin, even though they appeared normal in all other ways. They spoke an unrecognized language and refused to eat anything other than pitch from bean pods.
Eventually, their skin lost its green color. After they learned English, they explained that they were from the “Land of St Martin,” which was a dark place because the sun never rose far above the horizon. They claimed that they were tending their father’s herd and followed a river of light when they heard the sounds of bells. Then they arrived in Woolpit

Read more at http://www.viralnova.com/unsolved-earth-mysteries/#cLzcUUPDF2XVuUuu.99

In Which It's Time For WRiTE CLUB

WRiTE CLUB is back guys! And I think you should sign up.

What's WRiTE CLUB you ask? And why should you join?

Well I'ma tell you.

WRiTE CLUB (WC from here on, because I'm tired of typing it) is a blog contest. But it's different than the other big contests. Because there isn't any prize.

That's right, the only prize is bragging rights. Which means there's no real stress or worry. It's all for fun.

And it is a lot of fun!

A single elimination competition, where your anonymous submission goes up against another and readers vote for which one they want to move forward. And that's it!

You can submit whatever you want: the beginning, middle, end, poetry, short stories. Whatever you think is your strongest writing and will bring in the votes.

I've participated in the past and always had a lot of fun. I made it to round 2 last year until I was beat out by the entry that would end up winning it all (so there weren't any hard feelings, because I loved that entry too).

This year I'm not submitting anything, since I got the book deal and all that fun stuff, but I did volunteer my time as a first reader, one of the judges who reads ALL the entries and helps pick the 32 that make it into the head to head competition. So far, it's a lot of fun.

There are more details here, including how to submit and all the details and stuff, but I definitely think you should join up, guys. It's a lot of fun and the more who participate the more fun everyone has. We're taking submission until May 31st, so you still have plenty of time to get your submission shiny and stuff.

Join ussssssss....

Friday Fun

Woo! Ape-friends! APE-FRIENDS!

Guess what time it is?

It's weekend time!

Which means let's start this out with some fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thunderstorm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Which I HAVE A BOOK DEAL!

I've had to sit on this news for a bit, but as the title says, ALL THAT REMAINS sold!!

Publisher's Marketplace Announcement



Okay, backing up a bit.

I signed with Agent Mollie at the very end of January. There was excitement already about ATR with some editors, etc, so we wanted to revise ASAP and get it out.

So I finished up revisions and we went out on sub on Valentines Day.

And for two weeks my emotions were up and down like crazy. I'd heard being on sub is rough, but they weren't kidding. I'm a person who pretty much lets things roll off me. Rejections? Not a problem. Waiting on responses? Sure, I can handle that.

But submission? I haven't been that stressed in a long, long time.

Though, to be fair, I think a large chunk of my stress was because everything was happening so, so fast. I mean, I had sent out my first query for ATR in November, and here we were, on sub, three months later. Super zoomy fast. Which gave me no time to adjust to anything.

But, luckily for me, it didn't last long, because on the last day of February HarperTeen offered!

I spoke to Mollie right away.

Then I called Twin. I was shaking I was so excited. After I told Twin, I called my mom. She kept having me repeat my news. And then she told my dad and my other sis and I told Brother when he got home.

But of course, I had to swear them to secrecy until we accepted and I had the go-ahead to announce.

And we did accept! And here I am announcing and I'm so super excited to work with Editor Alex and launch ALL THAT REMAINS into the world.

I hope you'll like it. I think you will.

And as always, thank you for reading. If you're trying to reach this point yourself, just keep trying, just keep putting yourself out there. You can do it.

In Which It Keeps Raining

How was everyone's weekend? Did you do anything fun for Mother's Day? Or fun just because?

We celebrated Mother's Day a day early since Twin works on Sundays.

Twin, our Mom and I hit up an annual plant sale. It's massive and hosted at our State Fair grounds. We bought an apple tree and a hazelnut shrub. As well as veggies and herbs. Our mom also bought some shady plants for our cabin.

Then we went home, planned a baby shower for our cousin, played some dominoes, ate take out, cooked some smores and sat in the hot-tub. All in all, it was a pretty fun day.

It's been raining on and off here for pretty much a week. And we have another week of rain coming up, too. Which, I mean, I know it's good. The lakes can use the water. But also, our lawn is really long and could use a mowing but we just haven't been able to find a dry spell to do so.

Also, I'd really love it to be warmer, high sixties or low seventies, instead of wet and cold. It's May and I feel like it should be nicer. And, you know, whine whine whine.

 

Friday Fun

Wooo! It's Friday and we're a week into May, ape-friends, which mean it's me, Yvie to launch you into the weekend for this fine spring day.

I had to beg for nicer weather. BEG for it

So let's get started!