Writing

Posts about writing.

Working against my own interests …?

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

Once again stealing someone else’s idea, I present to you The Living Notebook’s latest blog post. Basically, Harper Voyager (the sci-fi/fantasy subsidiary of Harper Collins) is accepting un-agented sci-fi manuscript submissions from October 1 – 14th. They’re looking for about a dozen new manuscripts, which they will publish digitally (not in print, although the site does say they’ll think about it if your sales are good enough). Anyway, click your way over to The Living Notebook’s site to get the link to the Harper Voyager contest.

So … is spreading the word of this awesome opportunity actively working against my own interests? Oh, absolutely. But I figure that, hey, if you have a sci-fi manuscript better than mine, then you deserve to get signed. So polish up those manuscripts and start submitting!

My one qualm with the Harper Voyager contest is that, while I would *love* to be traditionally published (talk about street cred!), they’re only doing digital publication (at least at first). I want to see my book in print. So in the extremely unlikely event they actually choose my story for publication, does that mean I’d have to give up my dreams of seeing Imminent Danger in print? I’d probably lose my copyright rights once they pick it up, so I wouldn’t have the option of printing the book myself. Thoughts?

My other qualm (okay, so I lied about only having the one qualm) is that I don’t want to put my self-publishing plan on hold on the extreme off-chance that Harper Voyager picks my manuscript out of thousands. What would happen if I self-published my book, and then discovered three days later that Harper Voyager wanted to buy my book? I mean, again, traditional publishing yay! But I would have already gone through all the effort of self-publishing (which I already paid for), only to have to cancel everything after a few days/weeks. The Harper Voyager website states that they will accept self-published books, no problem, and I suppose I already have paid for the self-publishing, so there’s no real point in stopping the self-publication process. Still … can you imagine? “Hey guys, remember how I finally self-published yesterday? Yeah, just pretend it never happened. Trololol.”

Anyway, head over to The Living Notebook’s blog and check out that Harper Voyager link. Best of luck to all of you who decide to submit a manuscript!

Random graphic of the day:

D’awwwww! Source: http://i.imgur.com/Fex5Q.jpg

Categories: Self Publishing, Writing | Tags: author, books, dinosaur, ebooks, harper voyager, imminent danger, sci-fi, self-publish, writing | 17 Comments

My Author Mission Statement

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

I got this idea from Joanne Phillips’ Blog (check her out!).

Basically, she says that if businesses have mission statements that explain why they do what they do, why shouldn’t an author have one as well?

Thus, without further ado, my mission statement:

I write because I love books, and I can’t imagine anything more amazing than writing a book that people love.

It’s not quite as long and detailed as Joanne’s mission statement, but there it is. I had planned on rambling for several paragraphs, but then I realized that that one sentence really does encapsulate my thoughts on writing.

What’s your author mission statement? Or, if you aren’t an author, what’s your life’s mission statement?

Random Image of the Day:

http://cheezburger.com/2283105024

Classic Youtube Hit of the Day:

Categories: Writing | Tags: author, author mission statement, books, ebooks, evolution of dance, lolcat, writing, writing a book, yolo, youtube | 17 Comments

I broke 100,000 words! Happy day!

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

It’s official — Imminent Danger and How to Fly Straight into It is now under 100,000 words. I believe it’s sitting nicely at 99,300-ish, and we’re not even done editing yet.

We’re on chapter 32 of 44, so I’m guessing the final word count will be somewhere around 95k. That’s still a very decent length for a YA novel, and the writing is getting much better and tighter as a result, so I’m really happy that we decided to do this final round of editing.

At the current editing pace, we (my editor/mother and I) should be done the shortening/revisions by the end of September. Then I’ll send out the new and improved book to a handful of select readers (aka people who can promise to read the book in a week), fix whatever (hopefully!) minor issues they find, and then send it off for copy-editing.

The other upside of getting the book under 100k words is that the copy editing will cost less. 100k words = $2200. 95k words = $2090. That’s about a hundred dollars in savings, which is good by me! I’m all for saving money. Then again, who isn’t?

In other news, I have a stack of self-published novels on my hard drive that I need to read and review. I keep meaning to get started on them, but I always seem to get distracted. Last week I had a legitimate excuse — I was temping for a telecommunications company — but now I don’t really have any reason not to get started on the reading/reviewing.

My next hurdle will be to decide which book to read first. Should I go by the date each book was sent to me, or by how much I want to read the book? Hmm …

In other, other news, I’m headed to Washington with my mother this week for a mini-vacation before winter starts. That’s the nice thing about having a flex-time job — vacation is very easy to book, since I don’t have to request time off or reschedule shifts. On the downside, I’m really bad at flex-time work, because I procrastinate like nobody’s business. Ah well. Anyway, I’m really excited for Washington. I’ve been once before, when I was about twelve or thirteen, and I remember that it was really awesome. I’m probably going to hit up the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, etc.

I’ll try to take pictures, but no promises.

Random picture of the day:

True love, Japan style
source: http://i.imgur.com/yA7Up.jpg

Categories: Self Publishing, Writing | Tags: author, books, copy-edit, ebooks, editing, gangnam style, imminent danger, japan, self-publish, smithsonian, true love, washington, writing, yolo | 23 Comments

The Ultimate Fanfiction Challenge

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

Okay people, in honour of my first day of 9-5 work, I have created the:

Here are the rules:

1. Write a short fanfiction about ANYTHING you want — the goal here is to get as ridiculous as humanly possible. Oh, and you should probably keep it fairly clean — or at least make sure to put a rating on it before inquisitive young minds read your Snape/Dobby/Katniss orgy fic and are scarred for life.

2. Post it in the comments below, or on your blog, or wherever the heck you like. Just make sure you let me know so I can read it!

3. If you like the idea, share the ULTIMATE FANFICTION CHALLENGE on your own blog. Hopefully it will catch on, and WordPress will be swamped by thousands of terrible, mind-bogglingly twisted fanfictions in the next few weeks. Fingers crossed!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For my entry into the ULTIMATE FANFICTION CHALLENGE, I give you:

The Boy and his Cake

Fandom: Hunger Games

Pairing: Peeta / Cake

Rating: R (sort of …?)

It had been months since the Hunger Games, but Peeta knew that even though his body had escaped the arena, his mind never would. His nights were tormented by images of Katniss dying. Peeta always tried to save her, but he never could. He woke up screaming every morning, long before the sun rose, and nothing could get him to fall back asleep.

After awakening from a particularly horrific nightmare in which Katniss had been ripped apart by mutts, Peeta stumbled out of his room and down to the kitchen for a glass of water. But when he turned on the kitchen light, he was astonished by what he found sitting on the counter. It was a huge cake, five layers tall, and two feet in diameter.

“What do we have here?” Peeta murmured, approaching the cake. It was made of chocolate batter, but there was something missing. “You poor thing,” he murmured, reaching out to gently caress the spongy cake. “Your maker forgot to ice you. Don’t worry, I can fix you. I’ll make you feel better than you’ve ever felt before.”

Driven by his newfound purpose, Peeta rummaged through the drawers and pulled out the ingredients to make delicious chocolate icing. He mixed it all together in a huge wooden bowl, accidentally covering himself in icing sugar in the process.

Dipping a wide spatula into the bowl of icing, Peeta carefully began to ice the near-side of the cake. “Your curves are so soft, so round,” Peeta whispered, tracing the spatula lovingly along the cake. “I could just eat you up. But you wouldn’t like that, would you? You want the person who eats you to take it slow, really savour the experience. I can do that for you, cake. I can be that man.”

He ran the icing-coated spatula round and round the cake, moving faster and faster as he moved up the layers. By the time he reached the topmost layer, he was panting from his efforts. “Just a little longer,” he gasped. “Almost there …”

Finally he reached the tip of the cake, finishing off the icing with a sultry swirl. Then Peeta collapsed back against the sink, breathing raggedly and clutching the spatula in an iron grip.

There was only one thing left to do. Drawing forth a knife, Peeta carefully sliced off a piece of the chocolate confection. After the first taste, his eyes rolled back in his head and he moaned in ecstasy. “Oh my god,” Peeta groaned. “I’ve never felt this fulfilled before, you insatiable chocolate temptress.”

“Eat some more,” the cake replied, “and you’ll see how insatiable I can be.”

It suddenly occurred to Peeta that maybe he should have attended those Capitol-appointed psychiatric appointments after all.

Random Video of the Day:

The song itself is kind of bad. The video, however, is hysterical.

Categories: Writing | Tags: author, fanfiction, funny, g-dragon, hunger games, just for fun, kpop, peeta, ultimate fanfiction challenge, writing, yolo | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Deadly Mark by Katherine Nader

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

In our latest self-published author spotlight, I present to you: The Deadly Mark, by Katherine Nader.

The Book

“The Deadly Mark”

The Genre

Historical Fiction

The Author

Katherine Nader was raised in Lebanon, then moved to Canada in 2004. She is currently studying Biology, English, and Professional Writing at the University of Toronto.

The Plot

Threatened by the desires of dangerous men who see her as nothing more than a pawn in their games of power, Princess Kathleen finds herself coveted by a cruel prince who is determined to marry her at all costs. Her only ally is Eden, a man hired by her father to keep her safe. But how can Eden protect her, when the person who wants to harm her most is Kathleen herself?

The Review

If you put all the politics and courtly intrigue aside, The Deadly Mark is basically the story of a tormented princess who turns to suicide in order to escape the machinations of the various overbearing males trying to control her life. I enjoyed following Kathleen’s story, because her self-destructive nature, coupled with her questionable decision-making skills, gets her into all sorts of sticky situations. Kathleen is a very empathetic character, and it’s easy to sympathize with this girl who is manipulated by everyone around her. I also enjoyed the character of Eden, the loyal guardsman, because he truly has his work cut out for him keeping Kathleen from offing herself at every available opportunity.

My two main issues with this novel were the length, and the point of view. The book is fast-paced, which is good, but it moves so quickly, and the setting descriptions are so sparse, that I had trouble keeping track of where the characters were, and why they were doing what they were doing. So I would have definitely liked to see more description—Kathleen is a princess, after all! A few mentions of “soaring archways”, or “golden chandelliers”, or whatever would have definitely helped immerse me in the world. The other problem I had was with the POV. The Deadly Mark is written in omniscient third person, which means that you can see into every character’s head. This takes a lot of the mystery away, because you already know what everyone is thinking.

These issues aside, I did enjoy reading The Deadly Mark, mostly because Kathleen and all her foibles greatly amused me. It’s pretty good for a debut novel, and I have high hopes for the author in her future writing endeavours.

The Rating

4 out of 5 stars

Random Link of the Day:

Check out Cracked.com’s latest photoplasty slideshow: 23 Small Changes That Make Adorable Things Terrifying

Click here to view the slideshow.

Awesome Video of the Day:

The Old Spice guy gets even more awesome:

Categories: Book Reviews | Tags: author, book review, books, ebooks, iuniverse, katherine nader, old spice, self-publish, the deadly mark, writing, yolo | Leave a comment

Filming Your Novel — Crazy Idea … or AWESOME?

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

So as my book nears publication (don’t get too excited, I’m *still* cutting the darn thing down to size), I’ve been trying to come up with an idea for a book trailer. I just watched Candace Knoebel’s book trailer for her novel Born in Flames, and it seems like a really cool idea.

My main concern is that I don’t want the trailer to look too amateur-ish (or “n00b-ish”, if you prefer). My friend has offered to do a trailer, but her vision is more of an author interview rather than an actual trailer with photos, music, etc. And that sounds like a great idea–I’ll definitely be taking her up on her offer.

So I’ve got the interview planned–now I need an actual trailer. I was considering starting to browse through stock photography websites to track down appropriate images. Then my brother suggested a different trailer concept. Ready? Steady? GO!

Film a scene from your book

As in, take a scene, find some actors willing to work for free, get a camera, and make a mini-movie. I think it’s a great idea! The big issues to overcome, as I see it, are:

I’ll need to find actors willing to work for free. I live near a university, though, so I’m sure I can round up some drama students.
I’ll need to pick a scene from the book that is a good representation of the story, as well as being something I could actually film.

#2 seems to be the bigger challenge, mainly because Imminent Danger (my book) is hardcore sci-fi. As in, it takes place in outer space with aliens and spaceships and laser guns. So I’ll probably have to choose one of the very few scenes on Earth, in order to ensure the video doesn’t look one of the movies those robots make fun of on MST3K.

Crazy idea … or awesome?

Has this been done before? Make a low-budget film of a scene from a book for promotion purposes? Most book trailers seem to provide a summary of the book, complete with dramatic voice-over. Is such a thing even feasible? Would it look unbearably bad?

The last home movie I made was in grade eleven. It was called “The Spanish Guide”, and featured my cardboard cutout of Legolas as the lead character. He led my friend and I up a volcano–I don’t remember why–and the whole movie was spoken in really abysmal Spanish (it was for Spanish class). The best part was when my friend complained about her stomach hurting, and then we cut to a can of pea soup spilling on the ground to represent her throwing up.

It was really bad.

Anyway, assuming I’ve become moderately more competent since then (or, at least, acquired friends who don’t fail at everything film-related), I think this could be a really cool idea. And all my blog friends are welcome to steal this idea, if it tickles your fancy. I really don’t know how realistic it is.

Oh yeah, and if you do know of something like this being done before, please link it in the comments!

Unrelated photo of the day: THE HOBBIT dwarves

Fili and Kili from the Hobbit. Is it just me, or the one on the right kind of cute?
source: http://hobbit-trailer.blogspot.ca/

Pop Culture Resource of the Day: DUBSTEP

So my brother’s been trying to explain dubstep to me, especially the concept of “dropping the bass”. At first I thought he meant the musicians were literally dropping their bass guitars. This, it turns out, is incorrect.

Then I found this video. It features one hour and twenty-eight minutes of “dropping the bass”, and I now have a much better understanding of the so-called “Dubstep” phenomenon. Give it a listen (you can stop after 30 seconds if you want), if only to educate yourself on the current music trend that is sweeping the globe. Also, please don’t sue me if your speakers/ears/brains explode.

Categories: Random, Writing | Tags: author, book trailer, books, drop the bass, dubstep, dwarves, imminent danger, the hobbit, writing, yolo | 20 Comments

Thoughts on Manuscript Pruning

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

So as you may know, I’m trying to cut my manuscript by 21k words to bring it down to 100k. Ready for the current word count?

Drumroll, please.

dadadadadadada ((drum roll))

108,354 words

I know, right?!! I’m more than halfway there! Woo! And I didn’t even cut out that much — it’s mainly tightening up sentence structure, deleting adverbs, and destroying the word “suddenly” whenever I come across it. I have cut out a few scenes, but they’re always either redundant, never did make sense in the first place, or both.

So despite my initial worries about this whole process, I’m actually really glad I did it. The book is going to be much tighter now, which should make it a quicker and easier read without losing any of the fun/humor/romance/action/angst. (I’m kidding, there really isn’t any angst. Well, except for the part where ****** sells ****** to the ****** and then ******* kills ****** — but other than that, no angst!).

I’m positively chipper today, aren’t I? Maybe because I’m halfway down to 100k words, and I’m not even halfway through the manuscript yet. I wonder how short it will be when I’m finished? My current bet is 95k words. That’s still a decent length for a book, right? RIGHT?

It occurs to me that I might be getting ahead of myself. I’ve still got 8k words to cut, after all, and that’s going to take at least another few weeks. Cutting your manuscript is a marathon, not a sprint. Luckily, writers are particularly dangerous over short distances. Did I just directly contradict my metaphors? Yes. Did I horribly botch a LOTR quote? Also yes.

I’ve really got to work on that.

Anyway, I’m planning to record another vlog (because that didn’t take *forever* last time). As such, I shall share a secret with you:

My editor/manager will be appearing on the vlog!

She’s also my mom, so be nice if you happen to leave a comment. I don’t know what we’re going to talk about — I imagine I’ll take about an hour’s worth of footage, then cut it down to 5 minutes of random chatter — but whatever we talk about, it’ll be awesome. So stay tuned!

Phenomenal game of the day: ((click here to play!))

Try not to die when the unicorn evolves. It’s harder than it looks. And make sure to pop back here and tell me your high scores!!!

Categories: Writing | Tags: adult swim, author, books, ebooks, editing, imminent danger, robot unicorn attack, self-publish, vlog, writing | 18 Comments

Book Review: 2 Novellas by Keri M. Peardon

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

In this latest self-published book review, we turn our attention to fellow blogger Keri M. Peardon, who has written two delightful little novellas–The Last Golden Dragon, and The Widow.

The Novella

The Last Golden Dragon

The Genre

Fantasy/Romance

The Author

Keri Peardon graduated from Hollins University in Roanoke, VA in 2001 with a B.A. in History and a strong background in creative writing. She is a life-long resident of Tennessee and is currently employed as a legal assistant to a private-practice attorney. In addition to writing, she is active in medieval re-enacting and does too many handicrafts.

The Plot

Aine, a young Irish peasant girl, is looking for the last golden dragon. Whilst wandering about the mountains, she meets a handsome man named Eammon, who offers to take her to the dragon’s lair.

The Review

I thought this was a quick, sweet little love story. And the ending was adorable! I had great fun following Aine into the dragon’s cave and experiencing the adventure with her. Eammon was delightfully enigmatic, and his banter with Aine was quite funny. My one issue with this novella is that I saw the big plot reveal coming from literally the first page. Maybe I’ve just read too many fantasy stories, so I knew what was going to happen long before it did. Regardless, I definitely enjoyed The Last Golden Dragon, and recommend it to anyone looking for a light, romantic read.

The Rating

4 out of 5 stars

The Novella

The Widow

The Genre

Romantic Drama

The Plot

Ever since her husband died, Carol has been cooped up in her house. Her best friend solves this problem by signing her up for creative writing classes at the local community college. After her first class, Carol runs into a handsome local artist named Daniel, who offers her both coffee and sympathy. They begin to meet every week after her writing class, and eventually Daniel asks Carol to model for his next painting. She accepts, and he proves to be the perfect balm for her wounded heart.

The Review

I loved this story. Unlike most romances, this one actually had a legitimate plot that kept me flipping the virtual pages to find out what happened next. I loved the author’s descriptions of the painting/modelling scenes. I could easily imagine Carol there in Daniel’s studio, posing silently as he brought her to life on the canvas with each brush stroke. Their romance is gradual, believable, and just wonderful to read.

The Rating

5 stars out of 5

Congratulations to Keri for writing such awesome novellas! Head over to her Smashwords page for more information.

Random tip of the day:

Forgot to lock your car, and don’t want to walk back? Car too far away for the remote to work? Try pressing the remote against your skull and pushing the Lock key. It gives your remote extra range, and I have no idea why.

Categories: Book Reviews | Tags: author, book review, books, car, dragon, ebooks, indie, keri peardon, review, self-publish, smashwords, widow, writing, yolo | 7 Comments

Musings on dialogue tags

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

Floccinaucinihilipilificate: to describe or regard something as worthless.

Today’s topic is dialogue tags. In case you haven’t heard this phrase before, a dialogue tag is the “he said” or “she screamed” that goes after a line of dialogue. For example:

“I love you,” she said.

“But our love will never be,” he said.

“How do you know that?” she demanded. “We’re made for each other!”

“No, we aren’t!” he cried. “You’re a human being, and I’m chocolate pudding! The only thing you’re meant for is to eat me!”

“But I don’t even like chocolate!” she wailed.

Etcetera, etcetera. Now, here’s the dilemma. Using only “he said” and “she said” is boring, because they aren’t always just speaking in their normal voices. Sometimes the character needs to bellow, or mutter, or exclaim–it’s like reading an essay otherwise. For example:

“Please don’t kill me!” she said.

“I will consume your flesh and then make love to your extended family,” he said.

“You monster!” she said.

“Oh, you’re one to talk,” he said. “You’re a Lady Gaga fan.”

On the other hand, when a story is riddled down in fancy verbs, the writing gets bogged down. For example:

“Uncle Fred passed away last night,” she bemoaned.

“I had no idea!” he exploded. “How are you?”

“As well as can be, considering,” she ruminated. “Did Dad mention anything?”

“Of course my Dad didn’t say anything,” he belittled. “He’s dead. I’m your cousin, remember?”

I guess the trick is finding a balance between the two. But what’s the right percentage? 60% said, 40% fancy verbs? 30/70? 90/20, if you have poor math skills?

Imminent Danger (my book) is probably about 50/50. My characters get into a lot of emotional situations, so they need emotional dialogue tags. And short of sticking adverbs onto my “he said”s and “she said”s, the only way I can really see to do that is by using fancy verbs.

What’s your fancy verb/said percentage? Extra points if you use poor math skills.

Silly video of the day:

Categories: Writing | Tags: author, books, dialogue tags, funny, imminent danger, star wars, writing, writing tips, yolo | 34 Comments

116,237 words and counting …

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

Goose Apocalypse

I’ve fallen super far behind on my work this week, so I only have time for a quick post. Remember how I mentioned that I had to cut 20k words from my manuscript? Well, I’m on Chapter 8 (out of 44), and I’ve cut 5,070 thus far. Huzzah!

Now, when I say “I cut”, I really mean “my mother and I” cut. She’s my editor/manager, and she’s been working on the book for so long that it’s basically hers as well. Not that I’m giving her any of the royalties!!! Muahahaha. I did, however, promise to buy her a boat once I’m rich and famous. Although I’m worried about actually doing that, as she gets sea-sick very easily. I don’t want to gift her with something that will make her ill on a regular basis.

Our basic cutting process (that sounds weird) is for mother to go through a chapter or two of the manuscript and scribble all over it. Then she gives it to me, and we go through the suggested changes together via her laptop-hooked-up-to-the-TV-via-HDMI-cable.

It’s incredibly slow going, but 5k words over 8 chapters is pretty fantastic. I have no idea where all those words came from, although it’s becoming clear to me that I ramble at length when I write.

Our goal is to have the cutting process finished by mid-August, because then we need to get it copy-edited (still haven’t decided by who). Fingers crossed, the edits will be done by the end of August, and then the actual publication process can begin in September. Which, again crossing our fingers, will put the book out sometime mid-October. Just in time for Christmas! Woo!

In other news …

The entire world probably knows this already, but in case you don’t, Snoop Dogg is a recently-converted Rastafarian, has changed his name to Snoop Lion, and will now make reggae music instead of rap.

Thus, for your viewing pleasure, awesome Snoop Lion memes: