Wait for Me–Book Review

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Kourtney

This is a beautifully written, heart rending book about becoming yourself. It’s about how hard it is to break out of the confines of who you are expected to be.

The story is told through chapters alternating the POV between Mina, the older sister, and Suna, the younger sister.

Mina and Suna are the daughters of hard working Korean immigrants. Their mother expects great things from Mina. But because of Suna’s hearing impairment, she is always left in Mina’s shadow.

This is not a story of an overachieving sister though. Mina’s big secret? She can’t do math and her grades are in a tail spin. She’s so bound up her lies she can’t see any way out.

Until she meets Ysrael…

It’s a fragile lovestory where the triangle involves Mina choosing between Suna and Ysrael. Between herself and her mother.

Mina is at that point in her life where everything is closing in, but she doesn’t realize how many choices there are–if she will only own them.

The writing is absolutely breath-stealing. Sentences I found myself rereading to absorb just how powerful and image creating they were.

An Na sets a scene so well. I will definitely refer back to this book for how to bring a setting to life without paragraphs of description. She conjures up the library, the beach, the mexican restaurant with such vividness that I am sitting beside Mina trying to prod her along.

A stunning book and a great YA read!

You can find out more about the writer here.

And purchase the book here.

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Jack and Jill–Movie Review

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Kourtney

This movies exceeded my laughter expectation. I’ll be honest, the previews cracked me up. But I had that what-if-those-are-all-the-funny-moments fear.

Luckily, I was WRONG. I giggled, snorted, hooted, and belly laughed through the entire film.

Pacino is priceless as a love struck stalker.

Sandler does double duty as Jack and Jill. Some of the best cross dressing on film.

Holmes is perfect as the milk toast wife.

The kids are adorably quirky.

The only weird thing?

All the previews were for children’s anime movies. Granted this is a PG film, but nothing in the previews interested me, mom or her sister.

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What I Learned From the Two Pages Critiques at Backspace

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Kourtney

This is G’s adorable dog, Burger, in his halloween costume–a hot dog suit.

It’s important to make sure your novel does not do this. Don’t make your readers think they are getting a hot dog, when it’s really a burger in a hot dog suit.

And now, onto what I learned from the Two Page Critiques at the Backspace Agent-Author seminar:

  • You’re first two pages have to do so much to keep the reader reading
  • If they begin slow, you may be telling the moment before the story actually begins–consider starting with where the story actually starts
  • Be concise and tighten your writing. Don’t ramble or say the same thing two or three different ways
  • Give a sense of whether the book is humorous or serious
  • Make sure the title fits the book
  • Make sure reader understands what is at risk (the stakes)
  • Opening with dialogue is tricky because it pulls reader right into the action. It is better to take a few beats and let the reader know the protagonist and what is at stake. Then the dialogue will have meaning to the reader
  • Mind your metaphors. If every sentence is a cryptic metaphor you have beautiful prose but nothing to ground the reader in the plot
  • Make sure to set the scene–protagonist, location/setting, situation/stakes
  • Mind your repetition. Readers don’t appreciate being walloped over and over again with the same thing said 4 different ways
  • Give a clear sense of characters
  • If you write genre fiction, make sure you are well read in that genre and understand the rubric of it
  • Make sure your voice comes through
  • Keep the backstory and tangents to a minimum. Get the reader to invest in the character and they will want to learn more. Inundate them in first two pages and there is nothing left to learn. Save your reveals for where they get the best payoff
  • Pacing should move book and reader forward
  • Flow draws reader in and orientates reader
  • Believability is important in setting up the premise of your story and character motivations
  • Don’t get bogged down in setting, especially if you love writing setting
  • Make characters come to life
  • Don’t write a laundry list of what the character did that day
  • Character must be doing something–action or tension must be in these pages
  • Don’t show and tell. It’s redundant. Generally, showing is more powerful so cut the telling
  • Be careful with passive voice (is/was/has)
  • Make sure the setting anchors the reader in terms of time and place
  • Most important characters in book should be in first two pages, lesser characters shouldn’t occupy much space here
  • Tag dialogue so reader knows who is speaking, especially if multiple speakers
  • Stay in one tense (don’t switch from past to present tense within a scene)
  • When framing a story, make sure the reader is properly oriented
  • Paragraphing creates white space and is necessary to readers
  • Stay in main character POV in scene
  • Multiple POV in one scene is very hard to pull off. Unless you are a master of the craft
  • Set up coming conflict
  • Orientate us to characters age and looks
  • Set up type of story. Is it a mystery or a romance or a paranormal? Put some sort of clue in beginning
  • Agents sometimes want to re-write premise/concept. It’s important to listen to what they want to change because that is what isn’t working for them. It’s up to you to decide if their changes are necessary or if you can find a way to work out their concern within the story you wrote.
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What I Learned from the Query Critique At Backspace

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Kourtney

There are certain things that absolutely must be in a query letter. Just like there are certain ingredients that must be in a cinnamon roll to make it a cinnamon roll.
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However, there is not one universally accepted standard recipe for a query letter. You get to play around with the ingredients and the spices as long as you stay within the framework of a cinnamon roll. It’s the same with query letters.
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So let’s start with what must be in a query letter:

  • Word count, genre, and book title (word count for first time novelists should generally be under 100K and shorter depending on genre)
  • Tie together the title and the plot
  • What your story is about, including the main character and the conflict
  • Your relevant skills for writing this book (MFA, expert in gardening and writing a gardening mystery, membership in national writing organizations, any publishing credits, etc.)
  • Concise writing–don’t say the same thing 2 ways. Make sure every word is relevant to your central plot
  • Give specifics and be precise about the conflict. (Don’t say some sort of evil/ultimate sacrifice/strange problem–that’s too vague) What makes your book unique?
  • Keep your sentences concise and to the point
  • Query letter should never exceed 1 page
  • Don’t waste query explaining structure of novel. Focus on plot in query
  • Avoid cliches in query such as “Time won’t heal his wounds”
  • Watch out for passive voice in query
  • Make sure your voice and tone come through in the query
  • If you are going to compare your books to something make sure it is other books, not movies or tv shows
  • Don’t put backstory in here
Those are the basic requirements of a query letter.

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However, each agent has their own preferences.
  • Some prefer that you open with word count, title, and genre; others prefer you jump right into your hook and explain who your main character is and what the conflict is and leave the word count, title, and genre to the last paragraph
  • Some agents hated metaphors and flowery writing in the query because they felt it was confusing and didn’t draw them into the pitch. Others found it striking. Try to keep the poetic sentences to a minimum in the query and make sure they aren’t confusing to the reader
  • Some agents like 3 paragraphs queries: the intro, the hook, and about you, while others will allow for 4-5 paragraphs where there are 3 short paragraphs for the hook
  • Some agents like comparable titles included, others do not
  • Some don’t mind a brief description of themes, others prefer to figure it out themselves and find this preachy
  • Some agents want you to include your college degree in the about me paragraph; others only want it included if relevant to book you are writing
  • Some agents prefer that you personalize query in first paragraph specifying why you are querying them. Other agents don’t care and want you to jump into story quickly
It is very important to take notes on each query critique–That’s how I was able to see common issues and learn about what does and doesn’t work in queries.

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The Backspace Agent-Author Seminar provided an amazing opportunity to hear 4 agents critique 13 queries letter. What surprised me most was that 3 writers’ queries got their full manuscript requested from an agent and passes from other agents. Once again proving that this is a highly subjective business.

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On Day 1, two agents poked at all the holes in my query, but gave me solid advice that allowed me to rewrite and submit a revised query to another set of agents the following day. The two new agents both said it was a strong letter and fellow writers said it was much improved.

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I am now querying away with a much better query. Fingers crossed it will attract an agent’s attention!
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Book Review–Self Editing for Fiction Writers

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Kourtney

I started reading this after my return from Asia. Wanted to work on my self-editing abilities because they always can use more honing.

Renni Browne and Dave King have a great approach to self-editing and divide the book into 12 chapters tackling major areas that writers need to focus on.

Some of the topics I was familiar with such as: voice, showing and telling, point of view, see how it sounds. Still reading their view on these topics helped cement not just what wasn’t working but why it wasn’t working.

And I’m a why person. Just telling me what doesn’t stick unless I know why. Browne and King seem to know this and make sure to explain the why.

There were a few topics completely new to me such as: proportion, easy beats, and sophistication. I learned a ton there.

What I loved most about this book was that each chapter included a cute cartoon drawing to poke fun at the topic. It was a great break from the reading and also made each self-editing lesson stick in my memory.

The book includes many before and after examples from actual clients they worked  with to show you exactly how to do what they taught in the chapter. The end of each chapter includes a key points section and also practice examples for the reader to take on (btw answers are given in the back of the book.)

This book was a fabulous learning tool for self-editing. Teaching you what you don’t know you don’t know. Probably one of the top 3 books I’ve read on editing.

Thanks to Renni Browne and Dave King for improving my writing. 🙂

You can pick up a copy here on Amazon.

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Why Am I Going to the Backspace Agent Author Seminar?

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Kourtney
  • Two days of panel discussions and small-group workshops with ONLY  literary agents on the program!
  • Attendance limited to 100 authors.
  • Amazing group of professional and talented aspiring authors.
  • Down-to-earth published authors who take the time to advise newbies.
  • Feedback from multiple agents on my query and first two pages.
  • A pre-query letter opportunity. I can still query agents who critique my query and 2 pages after I revise them.
  • The conference is open to all genres.
  • There are panels chock full of relevant and useful information on the publishing industry and the author life cycle.
  • Backspace Conference in 2010 led to manuscript revisions that got me over a dozen full manuscript requests and a bunch of partial requests.
  • The energy at this conference is infectious.
  • I love going back to NYC.
The Backspace Agent Author Seminar is November 3-4, 2011. Spaces are almost all filled up.
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Guest Blog: 3 Ways To Reveal Character Through Setting Without Sounding Like A Travel Agent

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Kourtney

Many thanks to Kourtney for inviting me to post and to discuss a bit of my writing process and my new book, The Vendetta, out now from Etopia Press. There are many, many ways to reveal character in writing, but one I like to explore—maybe because I am particularly drawn to exotic, luxurious locations in my stories—is SETTING.

Things we say about our characters:

“They just took over the page.”

“They surprised me when they…”

“I didn’t want to leave them when I was done writing.”

Things we say about our settings:

Erm…well. What do we say about our settings?

Setting is the most under-appreciated as a tool in a writer’s kit for delivering on character. “Oh, that’s just description,” we say, and we cast setting out with all that other wordy stuff in favor of an action sequence or an exchange of dialog. In all cases, however, we want our readers to connect emotionally with the characters. Setting, I think, knows all and reveals all about character. Setting concerns where the story takes place, but that “where” is only important as it relates directly to the story. And, as we know, the story is what happens to the characters.

mood, appearance, motivation, backstory, inner conflict, plot conflict

These are some of the elements of character, but how do we get them onto the page? How do we show a character’s mental landscape so the reader can react to what that character does?

1. It was a dark and stormy night… Setting the mood.

By mood I don’t just mean the tone of the scene, I mean the emotional state of the POV character. Is she grumpy, love-struck, embarrassed, weepy, determined, or something else? Is there a place you can put her that conveys this emotion? And what comes first, the mood or the setting. Can a dark castle intensify the character’s sense of apprehension? Does a beach scene relax your character, make her happy?

In this example from my recent release, The Vendetta, I am trying to convey my main character’s mood of isolation, but also a touch of wonder from her about her current situation:

He took her hand, sending a frisson of electricity up her arm. “Come into the living room. I’ll be back in just a second.”

Lisa followed him into the cavernous space. He disappeared into the other bedroom while she went over to the bank of floor to ceiling picture windows that faced the looming mountain. On the slopes she could see the tiny yellow headlights of the Caterpillar tractors that groomed the runs for the next day’s skiers. Nestled below, the ski village’s lights sparkled with nightlife. “Wow,” she whispered. “What a winter wonderland.”

2.  The beard on his chin was as white as the snow. Appearance—working the metaphor.

There’s some debate in the fiction-writing realm about how much to describe the physical characteristics of your story people. Often there are genre expectations for more or less description, but in all cases the author needs to provide enough description so the reader can picture the character. Setting can help invoke what the character looks like by providing ample scope for figurative language, which is a literary umbrella-term covering such devices as simile (comparison using like or as), metaphor (direct comparison), hyperbole (exaggeration), and a few others.

Here my main character in The Vendetta confronts her desire for the romance character and likens his features to the surrounding buildings (using both simile and metaphor).

Her stomach did that now-familiar flip. God, she had to stop being so unreasonably happy to see this man. The irritating schoolgirl giddiness firmed her determination to find out more about him and to keep him at arm’s length.

He seemed perfectly suited to the location among the splendor of Rome’s architecture, as if he were a Roman god. His features, carved and beautiful, gave nothing away. If she dared admit it to herself, she desired him more than she’d desired any other man.

3. The butler did it… Motivation—why, why, why?

Real people do things for a reason, so it follows that story people do too. Where the story takes place can reveal something about why the character takes action (or not). In addition, setting carries powerful emotional imagery, giving the reader clues about the character’s motives. This imagery can be as simple as dark versus light or as subtle as the kitchen versus the car.

In this final example, the setting conveys the turbulence of Lisa’s inner thoughts as the reader gets a glimpse of WHY she needs to protect herself from this man she finds so attractive.

Pellets of ice smacked hard against the window, driven by the force of the wind. Deep, new snow had buried the winter wonderland she’d marveled at last night. She pressed her hand to the cold pane.

She spent a few moments wondering if she would inevitably succumb to Nick’s deep voice and sultry eyes if she saw him again. She pressed her fingers to her lips, remembering the wild taste of him…Shaking off the thought, she stared out at the swirling white landscape. The truth was, she had always found it difficult to protect her pitiful, vulnerable heart when a man whispered how much he wanted her.

How do you use setting in your stories? Do you think it’s a good way to convey character, or can it bring on too many cliches? What is the best way to describe a character?

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When she’s not spending ridiculous amounts of time at the computer dreaming up interesting characters and spicy conflicts for her fiction writing, Kecia Adams loves to ride her bike really fast and shop for shoes. The Vendetta, her first contemporary romance with Etopia Press, is available at your favorite e-book retailer, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can find out more about Kecia and her writing at

website & blog: www.keciaadams.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/KeciaAdams

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/KeciaAdamsAuthor

In The Vendetta, vengeance intersects the international world of fine art when ski town barista Lisa Schumacher serves up espresso—with a dollop of passion—for Italian businessman Nick Carnavale. Lured to Rome by family ties, Lisa must race to find a mysterious missing painting in time to convince Nick that love, and life, is worth more than his revenge.

Buy it here:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

All Romance E-books

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Thirteen Reasons Why–Book Review

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Kourtney

This book lingered in my psyche all week. I found myself bringing it up in every conversation. Or rather turning every conversation to it. With my penpal in Okinawa, with my bff at IHOP, to dad when he walked in the door from work, to Mom as we ate lunch.

It left an indelible mark on me. And so dear readers, I decided to have a Sunday blog post about it. For this week only, we will have a seven day run of blog posts. Yup it’s that important, that I’m cutting into my travelogue diary.

To say, this book needs to be read by every single high school student in the world. Scratch that. Every single human being. Because the implications are staggering.

One of the most thought provoking lines of the book has to do with the fact that when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you mess with their entire life.

Jay Asher’s riveting Thirteen Reasons Why brings the reader on an internal journey, forcing them to take a revealing look at themselves.

In this book, Clay Jensen receives a box from his classmate Hannah, who died weeks ago. Inside are cassette tapes she recorded explaining the thirteen reasons why she died. And then she tells him, and if you are listening to this tape, you are one of those reasons.

The book juxtaposes Clay’s thoughts with Hannah’s recorded tapes in a gut-wrenching, macabre hunt to understand what happened to Hannah and what could have been done to help her.

Along the way, stupid pranks, cruel jokes, spiteful words, and looking the other way, they all snowball and leave suicide her only option. It really makes you stop and think how much impact you have on everyone around you. And realize all your actions have consequences. Not just for you, but for everyone around it.

In the end, it made me want to be a better person. To not stand by and watch someone suffer or be picked on. To not look the other way. To not let things snowball for others.

That is why everyone should read Thirteen Reasons Why. It makes you care again. To want to make a slight difference because you understand one word or one action can make all the difference to someone.

You can read more about the book at: Thirteen Reasons Why

And you can purchase a copy of the book here on Amazon.

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Guest Post: PJ Sharon on Heaven is For Heros

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Kourtney

In Heaven is for Heroes, seventeen year-old Jordie Dunn must face the loss of her brother when he’s killed in the war in Iraq. But Jordie doesn’t believe the military report that his best friend and fellow Marine, Alex Cooper, is at fault. In her quest to find the truth and help Alex, the guy she’s had a crush on since the ninth grade, Jordie discovers that the truth isn’t the only thing she wants.

Thank you so much for having me, Kourtney. First off I’d like to offer a free e-book to  three random commenters. Please comment below with your email address so that I can contact the winners. Kourtney will also post winners after my September 24th release date. Good luck to you all. I hope you enjoy the book.

Now, I’ll chat a little about my writing journey and how it has brought me to my debut novel, HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES, available on Amazon.com, B&N.com, and Smashwords. It can also be purchased on my website at www.pjsharon.com. My site is currently under construction so be sure to check back after September 24th to order a copy.

I started writing for publication about six years ago. It started on a whim. I went to a financial seminar that talked about “creating passive streams of income”—you know—you write a book, put it out there, and then sit back and collect royalties. It sounded pretty easy. I was a decent writer. I had always kept journals, written poetry on occasion, and crafted a few short stories. How hard could it be?

So I asked myself, what do people mostly read? I found the answer to that question (55% of the book market being romance novels), and thought, hey, I know about romance. You see, I had just married the man of my dreams, and moved out to an 1840’s farmhouse in the Berkshire Hills of Western MA. I was riding high on the happily ever after.

Six years later, I’m working on my seventh novel. It turns out I can write after-all, and happily ever after does exist. The quality of my writing has improved after taking many on-line workshops, attending conferences, and working with critique partners and a grammar coach. I’ve had those 500, 000 words of practice everyone talks about. Now the work begins.

My last two or three manuscripts are what I would deem print-worthy–with some good editing. I’ve finally put the pieces together and understand the concepts of story structure, the balance between narrative and dialogue, and the general language skills necessary to spin a good yarn (although I still struggle with too much telling, not enough showing).

Most exciting though, is that I think I finally found that elusive thing called “voice” once I began writing in first person. Voice is the element of style that makes us sound unique and offers the reader a deeper view into each characters perspective.

I found my young adult voice very appealing. It wasn’t a hard leap to jump back into my seventeen year-old self, even though it was many years ago for me. My teens were quite memorable. I had a pretty challenging up-bringing and overcame tremendous obstacles to get through high school. My mother died of cancer early in my junior year. I found out a week after her death that I was pregnant with my first son. I was a mother at seventeen. I was still on my own when I had my second son at twenty-four, so I raised my two sons more or less alone and grew up with them through some very tough years.

As a kid, I spent eight years in the competitive figure skating world, an experience that gave me a good grasp on the issues of anorexia and bulimia, which I write about in Penny’s story ON THIN ICE, my second book which will be released in December. In my twenties I was blessed to find martial arts. I was able to put the focus and self-discipline I learned from skating into a pursuit that was healthy and balanced. It earned me a black belt when I was thirty-two and I use my martial arts experience in my book, HIFH. Jordie, my main character, kind of kicks butt.

My life experiences have shaped and molded me in profound ways and I would like the opportunity to share what I’ve learned with teens. Whether it’s to let them know that they are not alone, or to show them that even though we go through difficult times in our lives, there is at the very least, a hopefully ever after.

I’d love to ask your readers: What inspires you when life gets hard? 

Here’s a brief excerpt of the book:

Angry with myself as much as I was Alex, I gave voice to my rage. “You stubborn, pig-headed, pain-in-the-ass…jerk!” I yelled to the leaves on the maple tree nearby. I felt stupid, but it was good to vent. A smidgeon of tension dropped from my shoulders. I did it again. “How could you be so selfish?” I shouted. “How could you walk away from the one person who knows you best…and still LOVES you…even though you are maddeningly stubborn and…and emotionally…immature!” I screamed. A flock of geese took flight off the surface of the still water.

I sank under up to my chin and felt the chill all the way to my bones, all of the heat I’d built up cooling instantly. I couldn’t be mad at him. He was an honorable guy who thought he was doing the right thing by taking responsibility for a mistake. A part of me still couldn’t believe it was Alex’s fault. Where Levi was concerned, anything could have happened.

But the other part of me—the part that had worried about my brother and lied to protect him–knew that if Levi walked willingly to his death, my silence was the lie that made it possible. Maybe that was the truth I was trying to get to. I dunked under and came up slowly, dipping my head back and letting the water pour over me as if seeking some kind of baptism or forgiveness.

 

If you’d like to learn more about PJ Sharon check out:

www.pjsharon.com

Follow her on Twitter: @pjsharon

www.facebook.com/secretsof7scribes

http://secretsof7scribes.wordpress.com  Tuesday’s scribe

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Book Review–White Cat

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Kourtney

I read the back cover of Holly Black’s White Cat and was intrigued.

Read the first chapter and was hooked. Downloaded it to my Kindle for the trip.

What I loved most was the premise. A world in which a small percentage of the population were “workers” capable of specific curse work. There are luck workers, death workers, memory workers, transformation workers, and even emotion workers.

They have the power to influence and affect others with their curse work simply by touching them with their hands.

That’s why everyone must wear gloves. And workers are illegal.

So they exist on the fringes and as part of crime families.

Totally spellbound. Then there’s the concept of blowback. Whenever a worker uses their power it boomerangs back on them. A death worker will kill someone with a touch. But then some part of them dies. They hope it’s a finger or toe. Not their heart.

Anyway the concept was mindblowingly good.

The protagonist is a 17 year old boy, Cassel, who is the only nonworker in a family of workers.

I liked Cassel. Ms. Black did a great job capturing the teen boy voice.

The story is well woven and kept me wondering for a long time. It’s unclear who the villains are at first.

My only disappointment was in the ending. I don’t want to spoil it for you but I will say some things are unforgivable. And those things seem to be swept under the rug and make the protagonist seem weak in the end.

Otherwise a highly enjoyable read.

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