Tribute to my Soldier

Memorial Day. The day we honor those who sacrificed for our freedom. It means a little bit more to me this year.

We didn't ask for this war. We didn't plan for you to get involved in it, though we knew it could happen. Today I honor you, my soldier who accepts his duty to leave his family for a year and serve his country.

How I treasure every moment with you. Every little moment that I've taken for granted over the past several years. I lay in bed next to you and felt the way you curled up behind me and wrapped your arm around my shoulders. I love that. I turned around and looked at you and you said, "You are so beautiful in the morning." You always say that. I don't know what you're seeing! But I just wanted to memorize you. The golden flecks in your blue-green eyes. The red stubble on your chin. Your wild eyebrow hairs that don't want to conform.

You held my hand in church. Our arms were stretched across the pew with our two little boys playing between us. I saw how your eyes reddened during the song and I can only imagine the thoughts that must be going through your head. I know the ones that go through mine. A year without you. A year of church, birthdays, Christmas, anniversary, all without you. Our oldest will be getting ready for kindergarten. Our youngest will be three, and not the youngest anymore. The baby will be almost walking. You rubbed your fingers over my knuckles and I held the moment close to my heart.

You led our family in prayer again. I love listening to you bless our house and our children and pray for our safety and prosperity. I love that you are so willing to kneel before God and in such a simple way set an example for our little children. My heart hurts that they won't see you kneel in prayer again for a long time.

I watched you playing with our boys today. They love jumping off the steps into your arms. You laughed every time they giggled and shrieked. You gathered up the little one and tickled him all over. He attached himself to you, not letting you even go to the bathroom without taking your hand. "Hand, Daddy." It made me smile. I know you are memorizing these moments also.
















I love you. I am so proud of you. You are doing something honorable and wonderful and our nation thanks you. We will pray for you. Please come home to us.

Heroes of the Fallen

I am so excited to tell you about a book I just read. The book is Heroes of the Fallen, by David J. West. I loved this book.

Heroes of the Fallen goes through the journey of several different people, from Amaron, the young, arrogant Nephite warrior determined to save his people or die trying, to Aaron, the Lamanite prince who believes a dark angel has called him to be the 'chosen one.'

Each character that David shows us is so real that even the evil characters have something soft about them, something that enables the reader to relate to them.

The story has a familiar feel to it that makes it seem historical,and yet it has a fantasy feel to it that is reminiscent of mythology and legend. I was engaged and fascinated at the manner in which David wove his scenes and motifs together. His writing style is lyrical and poetic. There is a lot of show of war and human cruelty, but there was nothing graphic or gruesome. All of the book felt so carefully worded and put together that even a mild stomach can handle the violence. It is refreshing to get a clean, honest vision of how such ancient cultures might have lived. Be warned: it does end in a cliffhanger!

My biggest complaint is that the multiple points of view at times were distracting. I felt that so much time passed between POVs that by the time we got back to character 1, I didn't remember anything about him. This is a juggling act that I am certain David J. West will have perfected by his second novel; finding the happy medium doesn't come naturally. As this is David's debut novel, I have no doubt that he is honing his craft. This novel comes together beautifully and I look forward to the next!

Click here to buy it!

Public Speaking Opportunities

One of the big differences between authors twenty years ago and authors today is public image. Authors used to be able to hide behind their desk, an invisible face with a bestselling book.

Today, an author usually has to create an audience and find a niche. One of the best ways to do this is public speaking. I took a great class on public speaking at the LDS Storymakers Conference, and it really got me excited to seek out these opportunities. I'm going to wait until my book is released, because I don't want to create an interest in a novel that people can't buy right at that moment.

A huge question I had in the class was, "Where do I find speaking opportunities?" We were told to look at community events. Last week we had a visit from the welcome committee in our new house. The lovely lady handed me a pamphlet with a list of community clubs and phone numbers on it. This pamphlet listed about 300 community clubs, and I got goosebumps. Each one of these clubs represents an opportunity for me to speak.

Public speaking can be a lucrative way for you to increase your writer's income, but in the beginning it won't be that way. When you start out making speaking arrangements, neither your book or unknown name are going to be selling points. The selling points will be "local author" and "speak for free." I can't imagine many organizations turning down an opportunity to have a guest speaker for no charge! The phone conversation would go something like this: "Hi, I'm a local author and speaker and would like to speak at one of your group meetings for no charge."

People love local talent. And they love feeling like they are important enough to get offered a free speaking appointment.

Your local chamber of commerce may have a list of community organizations that meet regularly. Or check the newspaper. If you see an annual event that's past, call them and offer to do it next year. Make sure you develop your platform and make them remember you. This is about you. If they remember you, they'll remember your book.

Eventually you'll reach a point where you can safely charge money. I'm not there yet, of course, but I imagine you know this has happened when people begin to call you and ask you to speak. When you have so many speaking appointments over the next few months that you are starting to turn them down. Then there's a demand for you, and you're hot.

Anyone already at this point? Had any really awesome public speaking moments?

Countdown 5: Revisions and a Second Editor

Sometime in the summer of 2009

My editor, Allie, and I had a lot of fun going through my novel Perilous. She was very upbeat, always telling me how great I was and how quickly things were coming along. That doesn't mean she didn't request changes, though.

Revision 1 The first change Allie wanted to see was the addition of my detective's POV. I put the detective in the opening scene, as a kind of pseudo-prologue. It was his only appearance in the entire novel. Allie saw him as a great way to bridge the demographic, crossing the book over from YA to adult. So we added him, and I love him. He owes his existence to Allie.

Revision 2 Once we had the detective in, Allie thought it would be fun to see the opposite POV: that of the villain. So we added him in, as well.

Revision 3 Next Allie had me change the introduction to the characters. All four girls were introduced at once. I had had several beta readers tell me that initially, the girls were a bit difficult to keep track of, but I didn't really know how to fix it. Until Allie told me, of course. She had me just introduce two of them! Duh. Then we added the next two in in the subsequent chapter. She also had me add character tags to the dialogue so we could easily identify the speakers.

Revision 4 This was the point where I had to do some cutting. The middle of the book had a ton of romance--like five chapters of it! It was with much remorse that I had to cut it down. But I understood why. A little romance in a thriller goes a long ways. Everyone loves romance, but it can't stop the story! I knew that already...but I was so pleased with the dialogue, the jealousies, the emotions! That was a hard cut for me. But Allie was great, helping me to see what I could cut and still keep the tension and hormones that I wanted! This was also the point that we decided it needed a new title.

Graduation Once we finished revision 4, Allie felt that I was ready to move on to the next editor: the one that would fine-tune my book. Allie was the big picture editor. I was very sad to part ways with her, but very excited that we were moving closer to publication!

Multiple Points of View

I've been thinking a lot about Multiple Points of View, or MPOV. I've always been in favor of this, but thought that the general public found it distracting. I spent a lot of time taking out the POVs in Perilous. I am thrilled that WiDo asked me to put more in.

Here's a fantastic quote I found on MPOV from a fellow author:

"Writing in multiple points of view has many advantages. It allows an author to piece together a complex story without requiring a single character to know and see everything. It makes it possible to give more information to your reader than you’ve given to your main character, which in turn makes it possible to rachet up the tension and the sense that your beloved protagonist is in danger. And finally, as my comments about omniscient voice imply, it helps with character development, by putting your reader inside the thoughts and emotions of several characters."

Boy, that just says it all! I want to make the tension more for my reader. They are privy to information that my main character is not. He mentions the benefits of a single POV as well, and I agree. I was quite pleased with the 'mystery' and 'closeness' that developed between the reader and Jaci when it was entirely her POV. There won't be quite as much mystery, and for many of my readers who were annoyed that they didn't know what was going on in the rest of the world, that will be a good thing. I will work hard to maintain that closeness! I want my readers to feel like they know Jaci!

Another website said this: "In novels the point-of-view can easily be changed at a chapter break, and 2 or 3 clearly distinguished time-lines or story-lines are juggled."

Ive had some issues with the juggling in the past. The problem with both books was that I started them in omniscient POV, not realizing it is a kiss of death. So while I'm about to add more POVs to Perilous, I'm trying to eliminate some in my other book and make the ones I have appear at predictable times. Particularly when we are switching back and forth between dimensions, it's important that the reader not spend too much time away from one dimension, and thus lose all interest in what's going on there.

However, I have noticed times when multiple POV can be distracting. Times when I feel like I never really get to know a certain character because we switch back and forth so often. How does the author find the happy medium? More on that later...

Reaching Children

When I think about one of the things I want to accomplish with my writing, I think about children today. Not necessarily the little ones, but teenagers. I want to reach them. I want to touch their lives.

There are two ways I want to do this:

1) Through my books

2) Through my example

Through my booksI don't want my books to be preachy. I sure hope they are not. But I have carefully chosen characters that represent different ways of thinking, ways of life, with different morals and beliefs. My hope is to get people to put themselves into a mindset that is not their own, and make them think a little bit about why this character acts the way he/she does. I want my readers to question their own lives because of how they see things play out in my books. I hope there are certain characters they will admire and respect, and certain characters that they will strive not to be like.

But above all, I want them to pick up my book and feel understood. To know that their thought processes and feelings are just as real and valid as anyone's. To know that we, as adults, appreciate what uniqueness they have to give to society right now.

Through my example
There's a lot to be said for having a dream. We really can accomplish whatever we want--with a lot of sweat and perseverance! And many of our dreams begin when we are young. I started my first novel when I was 9 years old. Only made it three chapters before I quit, but still. That's what I wanted, and I knew it.

I wrote Perilous when I was 12 years old. I finished it. It's true that the draft I wrote 15+ years ago is very different than what it is now, but it's the same story. Just several several several drafts later. Just because someone is young doesn't mean they can't accomplish something big. It's important to believe in oneself. To keep the future in mind. There's a girl at my church who, with her sister, raised enough money to build a library in Cambodia. They are teenagers. It is inspiring what young people can accomplish.

And you don't have to be pretty, popular, or rich. Oh, how I wish I had a picture of myself in junior high! My glasses were tinted and took up half my face. I wore my hair long and unstyled, usually with a clippy holding back half of it. The only clothes I had in my closet were t-shirts and jeans. I had friends and they thought my writing was silly. None of them wanted to read my drafts. They didn't care. And I certainly wasn't rich. We all joked that my first car would cost $50 and have no seats or flooring. We'd have to run to get it started just like a Flintstone car.

But I had notebook paper and a pencil and study hall. I wrote a book. And it got me somewhere.

Share with me one of your childhood dreams. Is it still a dream? Have you accomplished it? What are you doing to make it happen?

Image from http://www.iparentingcanada.com/articles/preteenagers/friends-or-foes-1187/2/.

Cliffhanger Endings

First of all, my deepest apologies for this past chaotic week of semi-blogging. I saw a lot of new people drop by and comment. I usually am better about getting to your blog and commenting, and I'll try to catch up.

On to the subject of today: Cliffhangers! Merriam-webster defines a cliffhanger as "an adventure serial or melodrama; especially : one presented in installments each ending in suspense." So, basically in writing, what we'd call a series.

In my opinion, there are three different types of cliffhanger endings:

1) Book #1 has a complete resolution. You are left curious about the characters' lives and futures and would read book #2, but the conflict of book #1 is over. Think: The Boxcar Children, Sweet Valley Twins, etc.

2) Book #1 resolves one conflict, but a bigger one is left open. Or a new conflict begins right at the ending. This leaves the reader unresolved and eager to pick up the next book. Think: Fablehaven, Gregor the Overlander.

3) Book #1 is the first half of a story, and there is little or no resolution between book #1 and book #2. The story continues in book #2 right where book #1 left off. Sometimes the characters might think the story is resolved but the reader knows otherwise. Think: Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games, Maze Runner.

In general, I think that #3 is becoming very popular. And I think it's a smart move on the part of publishers and authors. There's always the possibility that a reader forgets how much they liked the book and the characters between books #1 and #2, especially if there's a lengthy wait in between book releases. That's not likely to happen if there's no resolution. Those characters and that book are going to be on the forefront of the reader's mind, waiting for the ending. (Think: Harry Potter.)

Of course, there are always the moments when you pick up a book thinking it is a story on its own, only to reach the end and go, "No!!! I have to get the other book!!!"

Then there is always the chance that a publisher might be reluctant to take on your book if it's a #3 cliffhanger. After all, what if the book doesn't sell well? They're not going to publish your sequel. It's like asking them to take a chance on two books instead of just one. At least with a #2, the book can stand on its own.

What are your thoughts? Do you like series? What sort of cliffhanger do you like? What kind are you writing? (My book Perilous is a #3, btw. So be prepared to want the sequel.)