I'm a NaNoWriMo Loser (And That's Okay).

By Dan Haring

November is the month many exciting things happen. My wedding anniversary, birthdays for two of my kids, Thanksgiving, Movember, and more. But as a writer, one of the coolest things about November is NaNoWriMo, or for the acronym-averse among us, National Novel Writing Month. The idea is simple. Write 50,000 words during the month of November.

Notice I said the idea is simple.

The reality is much harder. Which is why of the three times I've attempted to "win" NaNoWriMo, I've never even gotten close. November is also, without fail, a month that piles up with busyness very easily. (Those things I listed above play a big part, except for Movember. That one pretty much takes care of itself.) So not only is it hard to find time to write with the normal full-time job and full-time family life, but all the extra stuff makes it near-impossible.

But still, each late October, in the midst of my Halloween happiness, I get the itch, the idea that THIS will be the year that I dominate NaNoWriMo. And that indomitable spirit usually carries me though a good week or two of November. And then I realize I've only written 2000 words total instead of the daily goal of ~1600. But it's okay, I tell myself, I'll just double up my word count for a few of the days and I'll be right back on track!

And it's usually just about this time that real life comes clomping over and reminds me of all the silly realities and details that I'm supposed to be dealing with, and inevitably my NaNo book falls by the wayside. 

But in the end, I'm really okay with the way things work out, for several reasons.

One is that it's a goal of mine, albeit one that I fail at all the time, to take advantage of the opportunities each day offers. Some days that means having a few uninterrupted hours to write at night. Other days it means that with time spent with kids and my wife, my writing time is minimal to nothing at all. But I'd rather my kids have memories of me spending time with them than of me hunched over the computer, grumbling to myself.

The other main reason is the goal of NaNoWriMo is to get you to write. Write a novel, sure, but write. That's the key. Right now I've averaged just under 500 words per day for the month. I wish it were more. I wish I'd been able to get closer to my goal. But I'm okay with it because I'm a lot closer to finishing this book than if I hadn't tried to do NaNo again.

And I think most people who tried and failed, like me, probably wrote way more than they would have without it. So wear your loser badge proudly. Because you're not a loser in the traditional sense. You're on your way to winning. you're on your way to finishing that book, even if it takes a little longer than 30 days.

PS Happy Thanksgiving!

Looking Up

By Dan Haring

I've always been enamored by the skies. Whether it's shooting stars or sunsets or rainclouds, I've always loved looking up. I don't know why. Maybe it's some desire to escape, to soar above this world. Maybe it's just the vastness of it all. Maybe it's the inability to measure what's in a cloud, or to imagine that the moon is shining down only for me. For whatever reason, I've always loved it. Before digital cameras, I'd routinely fill up rolls of film with pictures of the sky. Now I just fill up my phone.

I was riding down the freeway with my family the other day when I saw a massive cloud churning across the sky. I tried to snap a picture, but a wall of passing trees was too quick and obscured everything. So I had to wait a few miles before I caught sight of it again. When I finally did, it had changed to this:

I know it's not a perfect likeness, but my first thought was, "It's FALCOR THE LUCKDRAGON!" Now, The Neverending Story might be one of those movies that people love because they grew up with it. But being one of those people who did grow up with it, I'm proud to say I love it. If you haven't seen it, you should still check it out. It's a fantastic tale, even if the filmmaking effects don't quite hold up. But back to the point, if I hadn't been looking up, I would have missed this pretty spectacular cloud. 

There's an Ani Difranco lyric that goes "When I look down, I just miss all the good stuff. And when I look up, I just trip over things." I'm not saying we should wander around with our heads in the clouds all the time. Everyone has responsibilities and I'm not advocating we abandon them. But once in a while, take a break from checking Facebook on your phone and look up, look around. See what beauty and inspiration is out there.

You're probably going to trip over more things. But I'd rather do that than miss all the good stuff. 

Memory versus imagination

Sechin Tower

@SechinTower

A few days ago I had the opportunity to visit my alma mater, Carleton College, for the first time since I graduated more than 15 years ago. As anybody who’s been to Carleton could easily guess, I borrowed heavily from my college’s geography and culture when I created Langdon University for my novel Mad Science Institute.

This tour of campus was, therefore, as much an inspirational outing as it was a stroll down nostalgia lane. As the saying goes: write what you know. I wanted to check how well my memory lined up with reality. It turns out, there were some staggering differences.

Burton Hall under Construction

Sure, the central buildings of campus looked absolutely untouched by the passage of years (Wish I could say the same for myself!), such that the minute I walked through the doors of Sayles-Hill (the campus center), I had an urge to rush over and check my mailbox.

Likewise, the dormitory where I lived for two of my four years was still as I remembered it: isolated at the far outskirts of campus. As it always had been, it was a hike to get there, but a hike with great scenery.

This was my view every time I walked to and from Goodhue dorm. It is, therefore, what I imagine Soap Lazarchek sees every day as well.

On my way back from my former dorm, I walked into an area I felt like I had never seen before. There were entire collections of buildings I didn’t remember—some of which were new, but a few had been there in my time yet sparked no memories for me. I simply hadn’t had a friend in this dorm or taken a class in that building, and therefore it had faded from my memory.

In the background is Skinner Memorial Chapel, where we used to go into the basement and play Sardines and Hide-and-Go-Seek

It was strange to think that so much could have slipped out of my head. I’d like to think that shuffling those memories off stage made room for new ones, but it doesn’t really work that way. What is true, though, is that the most important memories stick around. I know they do, because I could still point to a tree we always used as a goal in for Frisbee golf, and to the windows of each of my dorm rooms, and to the exact spot on the shoreline where my roommate fell into the lake. Good times.

Not too long ago, I finished the beta draft of the follow-up to Mad Science Institute, and this new novel goes even deeper into the fictional Langdon University’s quirks and culture. As far as writing goes, it’s a good thing that so much had changed at Carleton over the years and that my imagination had altered even more, because that Langdon University and Carleton College aren’t the same place, nor should they be. For one thing, using Carleton as an inspiration rather than a firm setting freed me to pick the best of the old and the new, as well as mix in more from the outside. Still, if you’ve ever been to Carleton, keep the campus layout and lore in mind and you might start to see where many of my ideas came from.

You can't make this stuff up. The ground floor of the library is actually the 4th floor, and you descend into the progressively quieter levels from there. (Blue Monday is a coffee shop in town)

Memory can play so many tricks on you. I’m curious to know if anyone else has had an experience of returning to a well-known place after many years. Did it seem smaller in person? Had it undergone new construction? Did you feel like you could just walk right into your old living room even though you hadn’t lived in that house for years?

What kinds of tricks has your memory played on you?

Be good, and dream crazy dreams,

--Sechin

Where do I go from here? Girls & Ghosts Edition

Here's one of my not-so-secret secrets: I have tons of journals filled with ideas and a bunch of half-written stories dispersed in my computer. Oh no sir, I'm not the type of writer who leaves projects unfinished, but it happens that after starting a plot, its complexity or direction isn't working for me. So I let go more than abandon, because one day, I'll come back to it – and I always do.

Not this time, folks. Only fresh ideas for this new collection of ghostly stories where girls confront their deepest fears... and I'm actually scared. Of course I've been thinking about this project for a while, so ideas are slowly growing into creepy plots, but there's nothing already written on my plate like my past collections of novellas, and it makes me jittery.

 

So what is a girl to do? I'm trying to grasp as much information as I can, about things we don't fully understand with the little evidence out there. Like a junkie, I'm watching all these ghost hunters shows where people go willingly to haunted places to poke at spirits and gather EVPs, images of shadow figures and responsive communication – if any. Sceptic or not, it's beginning to form in my mind: girls who are scared, girls who don't believe, girls who are trying to help, girls who see dead people, and girls who won't confront the truth. And very slowly, they tell me their stories and how they deal with the fact that in the end we all die, and that we might become ghosts ourselves.

And then some miracle happens and someone captures such inspiring pictures, I completely lose my breath – and I'm still trying to catch it. Neil Gaiman posted this abandoned amusement park on Tumblr

 

Haunted, much? Seriously, look at the fog and the plants invading the structures – you can almost hear the screams of glee as the roller coaster rides down the rusty rails. But it's only an echo, because like many other places in New Orleans, it never got over the catastrophic disaster and it's slowly dying after being deserted and forgotten.

I can't forget, though – a bit like those ghosts who can't let go of what they knew and who they loved and how they used to be. So that will be my inspiration, an homage to people who are gone, places that are falling apart, and things we used to believe in.

 

 

Wish me luck? I need it, embarking on this Girls & Ghosts quest to give a voice to those who don't have any. One thing for sure: dark it will be, I promise.

***

Want an autographed softcover of Girls & Monsters? Giveaway ends June 28^th, don't miss out ♥

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Stories and Treks

By Dan Haring

My older brother and I shared a room growing up, and for many years we had this poster of the USS Enterprise hanging on our wall.

Neither of us were huge Trekkies, (or Trekkers) although I seem to remember my brother watching a fair share of TNG as he got older. But before that, we were little boys and it was a cool spaceship with a ton of really neat detail. That's all that really mattered. After watching a few of the Star Trek films and finding out who Kirk and Spock and the rest of the crew were, I found even more enjoyment staring at the poster. Not only that, I was inspired by it.

And that's what great stories and characters can do. That's why there are millions of Trekkies and Star Wars and Batman fans. Millions of Dr. Who and Firefly and Sherlock fans. It's because these mythologies have characters that we love and hate, characters we're able to lose ourselves and our normal lives in, characters that change our lives. 

And that's why we see these characters popping up again and again. That's why there have been 500 James Bond films. It's why we're getting a new Superman movie next month. These characters resonate.

So think about it as you're crafting your story and characters. Are your characters worth caring about? Would anyone cry if they died? Does it break your heart when something horrible happens to them? Are you elated and inspired when they overcome their hardships and obstacles?

If you answered "no" to any of the above questions, chances are your characters aren't quite where they need to be. I don't have a silver bullet answer for what to do or how to fix them if they're falling short. But the best characters not only have pieces of us in them, they allow us to project our hopes and dreams and fears onto them. It's not easy to create a Katniss Everdeen or James Tiberius Kirk or Luke Skywalker, but it's possible. 

This past weekend I saw Star Trek Into Darkness, (which was fantastic) and got this cool Star Trek poster by Mark Englert. (it even glows in the dark)

As soon as I saw it, I knew what I was going to do with it. My two boys share a bedroom, and I hung it where they both can see if from their beds, next to the Batman and Star Wars pictures. They're a little young for Star Trek, but they're not too young to be inspired. And as they read Harry Potter and watch The Avengers I want them to have favorite characters and go through the love and hurt and joy and pain those characters go through.

If you ask me, that's why we read and watch stories.

And why we tell them too.

If Ever I Stray

 By Dan Haring

I was racking my brain all weekend trying to come up with a post for today. But I got nothing. I headed into work this morning, thinking maybe inspiration would strike. But after working most of the day, I'm still coming up empty. Possibly because I just turned in a new revision to my agent this weekend, and my mind is catching up on some needed rest. Whatever the reason, I'm drawing a blank.

So I thought I'd turn the time over to Frank Turner for some words of inspiration:

Love is free and life is cheap
As long as I've got me a place to sleep
Clothes on my back and some food to eat
I can't ask for anything more

I think this holds true for wherever you are in life. It's easy to get caught up in the negative things and forget how much we really have. I can honestly say I couldn't ask for anything more in my life, and I hope you can say the same. Keep smiling, keep living, and keep writing!

My Stupid Book

By Dan Haring

Writing a book is a little bit like having a child.

I can't really comment on whether or not it's like actually giving birth, since I'm not equipped to make that comparison. And as hard as writing a book is, after watching my wife go through four pregnancies and c-sections, I'd say writing a book is, in fact, very tame. (p.s. My wife is amazing)

But, being a father, I think I'm qualified to make the case of books as children. You spend hours agonizing over decisions and choices and tiny little things that might have huge repercussions. You stay up late with them, you clean up their messes, you strive to make them the best they can be.

Sometimes they reward you for it and you experience emotional highs like never before.

Sometimes they throw up on you at two in the morning.

But at the end of the day, they're your creation, and you love them.

Your parents and family and friends will adore them too. They'll see past whatever flaws they might have and praise the good. At least they should. You need to have that support system, both as a parent and an author. But then things get trickier, because at some point, you send them out into the world, hoping that you've prepared them as well as you can for what's to come.

And here's the hard part. Your kids and your book are going to be judged.

They're going to be judged on how well they perform, how well they can exist in the outside world, and so on and so forth. And those judgements are going to be a reflection of you, of your skills, of your abilities, of how well you did your job.

I've heard authors say they never read reviews. While it might be noble to refrain from reading them, it's not really for me. When a movie I've worked on comes out, I religiously check Rotten Tomatoes to find out what people think. I don't read all the reviews, but enough to get an idea of what worked and what didn't. The same with my book.

Criticism is good, to a certain degree. Not only does it keep you humble and grounded, it can help reveal problems with what you've created that can be avoided in the future. No one has ever written a perfect book, or raised a perfect child, and having the flaws pointed out can help in your next endeavor.

When my book came out, the reviews were generally pretty good. Like I said, family and friends were very supportive. And people I didn't even know seemed to respond well to it also.

Then one day, I got my first one star review on Goodreads. Since it's short, I'll quote it here:

"Probably the stupidest book I have ever read. Just stupid."

I went through a lot of different emotions when I got that review. I was mad, annoyed, frustrated, hurt, and many other adjectives. I considered responding to the review, then figured it would be a bad idea. After I'd cooled off a bit, I decided to just write a short note saying something along the lines of "Thanks for reading. Sorry you didn't enjoy it." But when I clicked to make a comment, Goodreads showed this warning:

"Goodreads has found that it is not in an author's best interest to engage with someone over a negative review. Please think twice before commenting on this review."

Fair enough. I decided to simply hit the "like" button on the review and leave it at that.

As time has passed and I've thought about it more, I'm glad I didn't say anything to the reviewer. I'm also glad I "liked" the review. For those reasons listed above, I'm actually thankful for the criticism. Not only does it compel me to work harder on my next book, it serves as a reminder that not everyone is going to love my work, no matter how good I think it is. And really, that's fine. It's just a book, and I'm glad the person took the time to read it.

That's all we as authors and parents can really ask for. Give our creations a chance. Let them show you what they can do. Hopefully you'll find something of redeeming value in them. If not, we'll simply move on. No harm, no foul.

But fair warning:  If you ever call my kid stupid I might punch you in the face :)

The Book That Changed My Life

by Amanda Stevens

Your weekend warrior reporting for duty at long last.

Recently I was asked to do an essay on the book that changed my life.  That took a great deal of pondering because so many books and authors have impacted my writing at various stages of my career.  But when I look back...way back...there is one book that started me down my love-of-everything-Gothic path.  Here, then, is my essay:

I grew up in the country, miles from the nearest neighbor so most of my childhood companions were imaginary or literary.  I loved books from an early age.  The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder became my first obsession.  We lived in the rural south and my father was a farmer so it wasn’t hard to cast myself as the young, precocious Laura and my older, quieter sister as the stoic Mary.

Like most girls of my generation, I went through a Nancy Drew phase and devoured every Amelia Earhart biography I could lay hands on.  Those stories fueled my imagination and instilled in me a love of mystery and adventure, but the very first book that made me want to become a writer—a book that changed my life, in fact—was The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton.

 The tale of lost children, hidden rooms and enchanted dream riddles was so hauntingly beautiful and so profoundly different from anything I’d read before that the lingering imagery became almost mystical to me over the years.  A few Christmases ago, my daughter presented me with a new copy, and I was delighted to learn that the story is as spellbinding now as it was then.  It has everything that I’ve always adored in a book: insightful characterization, compelling plot and a strong sense of time and place all tied up with a transcendental bow.  And the story has purpose and soul.  Life lessons learned through an ethereal filter.

It’s interesting to look back and track my writing path over these past twenty-five years or so.  I’ve devoured many kinds of stories from many different authors, but it’s easy to spot the lasting influences.  From Mary Stewart, I learned the art of visual storytelling.  From Pat Conroy, I learned to embrace the good, the bad and the ugly of my southern heritage.  From Charlene Harris, I learned the importance of unfurling my freak flag and finding my own niche.

But without a doubt, my deepest writing roots can be traced all the way back to the magical realism of The Diamond in the Window and to those captivating dream riddles of the Hall children.

Hard Work and Inspiration

By Dan Haring

Full disclosure: I'm not a huge White Stripes fan. I like a few of their songs, but have never really gotten into them too much. But a friend recently passed this video on to me, and not only does it give me extra appreciation for their music, it gives me a lot of respect for singer(/songwriter/guitarist/etc) Jack White.


He talks about dreaming of being able to record an album, dreaming of being able to play on stage. Once he finally achieved those things, he could have probably had a long, lucrative career coasting along, making so-so music and relying on his earlier hits to make up for later mediocrity.  Instead, he came up with a unique way of keeping the hunger there, of keeping the immediacy. He limits himself. He makes things hard to do when performing live. Little things that no musician of his stature should have to endure, he endures. And he does it to keep things raw and fresh and real.

So...this all relates to writing, right? I think it does. I'm going through a revision right now, and I'm coming to realize sometimes I just coast by. I write something that's adequate and move on because it would be too hard to stretch and try to go down a certain road. But when I do that I end up leaving so much behind that could be better.

Doing hard things makes us better, and working hard makes us better.

As Jack says, "Inspiration and work ethic ride right next to each other...Not every day of your life are you gonna wake up and the clouds are gonna part and rays from heaven are gonna come down and you're gonna write a song from it. I mean sometimes you just get in there and just force yourself to work and maybe something good will come out."

Good will come of it, but we have to push ourselves. It's the difference between telling an adequate story and an exceptional story.

Which one do you want to tell?

Something like a dream...

by A.G. Howard

Last Thursday, it finally hit me. It's really happening. The dream that I fought so hard and so long for is at last within my grasp. Literally. ♥˘⌣˘♥

Because my Splintered ARCs (advanced reader copies) came in the mail. And for the rest of that evening, I was *FLOATING*. Still am.

In fact, I can't seem to climb down off of this cloud ... might have something to do with how beautiful they are. See?

One thing that really struck me was what a unique marketing tool ARCs are. They're not just some unedited paperback version of the hardback. They have all kinds of juicy info on the inside and the outside to entice buyers for the book.

So, since I can't hand out an ARC to everyone to show you, I'll share a few of the details via pictures. First, the back cover:



Hopefully, the text is big enough that you can see the different sections.

• First there's the blurb by a respected and already published author, to let buyers/readers know that fans of said author might like this newbie author's work, as well.
• Then comes the book synopsis with a hook that will hopefully make buyers and readers equally excited to invest time and/or money into the story.
• After that comes the marketing information. In other words, what the publisher is doing to get exposure for the author and the book, and in turn, helping to make the buyer's job to sell books easier.
• Book specifications follow, such as numbers of pages, price, ISBN, age recs, etc...
• The Publisher's insignia and address, and the distributor information for anyone interested in ordering

So basically, the outside is like a really elaborate business card. :)

  

The inside offers a preview of the finished layout. Chapter fonts, text fonts, designs, pictures, etc... are all on display. No holds barred, this is the time to display everything the book has to offer aesthetically, like a peacock spreading out those tail feathers to get the attention of his mate. And let me tell you, Splintered has some very pretty tail feathers (thanks to Amulet's design team for their artistic talent and foresight!).





ARC picture collage by Gabrielle Carolina




So, there's a quick peek at the ins and outs of ARCs.

Hope everyone has a great week! As for me? I'm going back to hugging my book. See you soon! :)

The Power of Books

by Jennifer Archer

Books are powerful. The books children read can shape their lives. I'm proof of that.

I’ve been thinking about the stories I read and loved when I was a child and a teenager – the ones that inspired my love of reading and made me want to be a writer. As an adult, I’m a pretty eclectic reader – I enjoy many different types of fiction. Looking back, I notice that was true for me as a child, as well. So here’s a short list of some of my childhood favorites:

The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink. This was my favorite book during elementary school. I must’ve been in 4th grade when I read it the first time, and I’ve thought of it often over the years. I recently decided to search for a copy; I wasn’t sure why this particular story had meant so much to me that I’d never forgotten the title, and I wanted to read it again to find out. Honestly, I’d forgotten most of the plotline and the characters, but the joy of reading it was fresh in my mind, as was the breezy beach setting. (We always lived in landlocked parts of the country growing up, and I’m pretty sure this story played a big part in inspiring my lifelong fascination with the ocean and beaches.) The Pink Motel is out of print, but I was thrilled to find a used copy of the original PINK hardback version! Rereading the story as an adult, it’s clear to me what makes it so special. On the surface, The Pink Motel is a fun, quirky, adventurous mystery full of eccentric characters – the guests staying at the motel that Kirby and Bitsy Melon’s family inherits. But on a deeper level, it is a story about embracing differences in people and having an open mind. I think it “spoke” to me when I was a shy girl who moved a lot, because it seemed to say that unusual people who don’t fit in with everyone else are wonderful and interesting, and that there are places in our society where they can be accepted as they are. In this terrific book, one of those “places” is a pink motel where anything can happen.

Escape From Warsaw by Ian Serrallier. I read this novel in 6^th grade. I think it has stayed with me for so many years and inspired me as a reader and a writer because it made the horrors of war real to me by presenting them through the experiences of three children, ages twelve, eleven, and three. During World War II, their country of Poland has been invaded by the Nazis, their father thrown into a prison camp, and their mother arrested and transported to Germany. The children are left to fend for themselves, and when they hear that their father has escaped to Switzerland, they face many dangers to cross war-torn Europe on their own and try to find him. Escape from Warsaw gripped me, made my heart race, and made me look at the world in a different way.

As an older teen, I discovered The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and realized for the first time the beauty and power of symbolism and imagery in fiction.  At the same time, I also discovered the classic ghost mystery and love story Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I loved the moody, dark tone of that novel, and I’m sure it’s the source of my own attempts to capture that “feel” in some of my own work. I also discovered romance novels during my late teens. I devoured the sweeping romantic historical sagas that launched that genre – Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower . . . The Wolf and the Dove – they are wonderful, breathtaking adventures – pure entertainment.  

Another book I fell in love with as a teen is Go Ask Alice by Anonymous. At the time of its release, this was marketed as the true diary of a teenaged girl who became addicted to drugs and eventually died of an overdose. Since then, it has been rumored that the "true diary" story was really a marketing ploy by the publishers and that the story is fiction. Either way, the book had a real impact on me. I read it when I was sixteen after moving to a new city and I related to "Alice." In the story, she moves to a new town, too, and becomes friends with the "wrong" crowd, which leads to her experimentation with drugs. The fact that I believed I was reading the words of a girl who had actually lived made me think more deeply about the choices we make and how they affect us. For that reason alone, I reluctantly forgive the publishers for deceiving their teen readers, if it's true that is what they did. 

As I glance over this brief list, it’s interesting that some of the titles that stand out in my mind, especially the ones I read as a very young child, are not well-known. Yet they affected me so much that I still remember their stories decades later. It’s also interesting to note that all of these favorites hooked me as a reader for different reasons and influenced my writing, and my life, in varied ways: The Pink Motel made me realize that books can provide comfort and friendship during times of loneliness, and can teach lessons in subtle ways; Escape from Warsaw offered an example of how powerful and life-changing a well-told story can be; The Great Gatsby brought me an understanding of symbolism and imagery, and exemplified that if handled deftly, those elements add depth of meaning to a story; Rebecca proved that tone and atmosphere can set a desired mood and stir a reader’s emotions; The Flame and the Flower illustrated that fiction doesn’t always have to make a social statement or inspire a reader to consider life in a different way – sometimes it’s enough to simply provide a fun and entertaining escape from reality. And, finally, Go Ask Alice taught me that a writer's words can influence the choices readers make in their own lives.

What books from your childhood or teen years taught you something about life or, in some other way, made such an impression on you that you've never forgotten them?

Visit Jennifer's website! 

What's in Your Backyard?

Eleven years ago I went backpacking in Western Europe. I hit ten countries in six weeks, and it was an amazing, whirlwind experience. There was so much to do and see, so many different cultures crammed together, so much incredible history to be experienced. I've wanted to go back ever since, but I've also had my sights on Japan, Australia, and a dozen or so other foreign destinations vastly different from where I call home. Part of it is wanting to see and explore places I've only read about, but part of it is also to experience something new and be inspired by the unknown. But as I was thinking about it, I realized there's another place that has a pretty impressive collection of cultures and sights. That would be the good ol' U.S. of A. From New England to New Orleans to New Mexico and beyond, there's thousands of different little subcultures and quirks in the United States, many of which are largely unexplored

In my freshman year of college I met a girl named Denise. When I asked her where she was from, she named a town in Michigan. When I said I wasn't sure where the town was, she held up her hand, with her fingers together and thumb sticking out, and pointed to somewhere near the tip of her ring finger. She told me that the main part of the state of Michigan is shaped like a mitten, and she lived near the top. Don't believe me? Check it out. Since that day, whenever I meet someone from Michigan I ask them what part of the mitten they're from. They usually hold up their hand and point, and they seem to enjoy the fact that I know this little tidbit about their state.

I was chatting on Twitter a while back with author Dwight L. MacPherson, who also hails from Michigan. He told me about the Upper Peninsula, or U.P., which is the non-mitten part of Michigan. The residents of the U.P. are referred to as Yoopers by the folks "downstate." A stereotypical Yooper seems to be a cross between a hillbilly and Rick Moranis in Strange Brew. They even have their own dialect. Oh, and they eat pasties. Dwight and I got to talking about how people know so little about the country we live in. In all my 32 years I'd never once heard the term "Yooper." Yet it's been there the whole time.

I'm lucky to have been able to visit a lot of different states, and although there are definite similarities, each place has its own way of talking, own way of doing things. It's just fascinating to me, and it makes me think that we don't need to travel to exotic places to get inspiration. The old saying "write what you know" takes on a whole new meaning when you realize there's a large part of the country (and world) that doesn't know what you know. Every place I've traveled, from Anchorage to New York City to Georgia has given me a fresh perspective on things, and each one of these things has helped me in my writing. But my writing is also hugely influenced by the tiny town in Utah I grew up in. From riding bikes through miles of fields, to crawling around dry creekbeds finding pieces of flint, to hiking through the old refinery just outside of town, there are a million tidbits I can snag from my hometown and inject into my work.

So what's unique about where you live? Tell me something only a local would know. I can almost guarantee whatever you come up with will be of some use to you. Go out there and look around your backyard. Travel if you can, but also open your eyes to what's around your home. We live in an amazing country, and there's so much to see and experience. Keep your eyes open, and you might even meet a Yooper or two.

First Love

By Jordan Dane

I’d like you to meet Abbey Chandler from ON A DARK WING. By getting to know my character, perhaps you’ll get a glimpse of me. I’m her shadow. Authors often share bits and pieces of their life’s experiences with the character they create. One of the big personal inspirations I shared with Abbey in her book was my first love.


Hal was the name of my first major crush. Tall and lanky, he was shy and had a quirky smile and tousled dark wavy hair. Totally cute. He played drums in my brother’s garage band and drove a yellow VW bug. The boy banged on drums, but his sweet quiet nature drew me to him. Like my character Abbey did with one perfect guy, I watched Hal from a distance and was too shy to talk to him much. Yeah, he hung out at my house for band practices, but I was too young to do more than ogle him. He stole my heart in a big way and took a piece of it when he left. I have never forgotten him.


More on Hal later.


In my latest book with Harlequin Teen—ON A DARK WING—Abbey falls totally in love with Nate Holden. Who wouldn’t? He’s a great guy. Nate is hot with an amazing body, smart, and popular. He dates likeable real girls, not cardboard cutouts, and volunteers as a mountain rescue guy in Alaska, sacrificing his life to save others.


Here is Nate in Abbey’s words:


“At that moment, I had two really good reasons to forget how much my life sucked and Taco Thursday paled in comparison to the reason standing next to me. Nate Holden stood talking to his buddy, Josh Poole. His deep voice tingled in my ear and made my belly twist into a major knot, the kind of thing that felt terrible and amazing at the same time.


Even with his back to me, every side of Nate Holden was excellent. I loved how his dark hair curled at his collar and he always smelled good, but with a full frontal, his hypnotic blue eyes made me forget to breathe. Whenever he talked, his lips could mesmerize me for hours. Being next to him felt like getting sucker punched—and liking it. He’d always be out of my league, an unreachable boy from an alternative universe who came to me in my sleep and tortured me. Sweet torture.


Nate Holden had been a constant reminder of how messed up I was. He was the complete opposite of me, someone I had no business even wanting. We had absolutely nothing in common. Brownie points for him. But that didn’t stop me from practically stalking him. Deduct said brownie points. I played scenarios in my head, where he needed me as much as I wanted him. How sick was that? That would never happen. My fantasies were the only way I’d ever get close to someone like him.”


~Abbey Chandler – ON A DARK WING


But of course with every book there is conflict. ON A DARK WING (Harlequin Teen – Jan 2012) is a coming of age story for a girl who is lucky to be alive after she survives a car accident five years earlier where her mother was killed. She crossed paths with Death once and lived past her expiration date, yet she can’t move on with her life because she carries the burden of guilt over her part in the accident. That tragedy marks her. Tanner Lange looks out for her from a distance, the only way he thinks she’ll accept him—as her best friend. Being a boy in a wheelchair, he doesn’t feel he has much to offer her except his unflinching loyalty, the same loyalty she had always shown him after he was paralyzed. Tanner sees the major crush Abbey has on the perfect boy—a great guy who doesn’t even know she exists—Nate Holden. But Death has a reason for finding Abbey again. When she crosses paths with Death again, she’ll learn what love and loyalty truly are.


To share more about me and an inspiration behind this book, I finally need to talk about Hal, my first crush who had his own link with Death. Hal was killed by a drunk driver while he drove his little yellow VW. I can still see his cute face in my mind. I clipped out his death notice from the newspaper and for years I kept it in a special secret box of “his” things. I never told anyone how I felt about it. That was too personal. I never got to see Hal grow into a man. He’ll forever be that cute boy with a crooked grin, tooling around in his yellow bug. A first crush is special because it’s the first. It’s intense and none that come after will be quite the same, even if you find THE ONE.


But not every first crush story turned out sad like mine, so I’d like to hear from you. I want DEETS, people! You don’t have to share full names, but I’d love to hear about your first crush. Was it someone you knew or a famous celebrity? How did you stalk him or her? What things did they do that you still think about? Spill it!


"Dane's well-developed characters provide an authentic exploration of guilt, loyalty, and belonging."
~Publishers Weekly for IN THE ARMS OF STONE ANGELS (Harlequin Teen, Apr 2011)

The Idea Jar

by Jennifer Archer

The men in my husband's family joke that their wives all have "job jars" for them. In these jars, we supposedly keep scraps of paper with household chores written on them. When the men have time to spare, they're required to pull out a scrap and complete the task. (Now there's an idea, huh?)

One of the questions I'm asked most when people learn I'm a writer is "where do you get your ideas?" I'm always a little baffled that they don't see ideas everywhere, like I do. Life is like that job jar except, in addition to tasks, it's also filled with ideas. Usually I'll see something or read something or hear something that sprouts the question-- what if....? An idea blooms then grows, often in a story direction I never expected.

The idea for my first published novel for adults BODY AND SOUL sprouted while I was sitting in line at a bank drive-up window. My children were small then and they were in the back seat irritating one another. I'd had a long day and their argument was wearing my nerves thin. I looked at the car beside me in the next lane -- a red Volkswagon with a young, pretty 20-something girl inside. Her window was down, music blared from her radio, and she be-bopped to the beat. She looked carefree, relaxed, everything I wasn't at the moment. I thought, Right now, I wish I had your life. Then: What if two women like us switched places, right here, right now? Voila! The idea for BODY AND SOUL bloomed.

The idea for another one of my books for adults, SANDWICHED, grew out of a lunch date with two girlfriends. Over salads and tea, we talked about the fact that our parents were getting older and might soon need more of our time, while our teenagers were getting older and wanting less of our time. We were, in a sense, sandwiched between the needs of these important people in our lives.

I wrote THE ME I USED TO BE after reading a magazine article about a woman who got pregnant at the age of sixteen while at Woodstock. She gave her baby son up for adoption and he found her more than 30 years later. What if that child had been a daughter? I wondered. And what if the daughter died before they ever had the chance to reconnect? What if a grandchild found the birth mother instead?

MY PERFECTLY IMPERFECT LIFE began at a writing workshop. The teacher had us take out pens and paper. "A character finds something unexpected in his or her significant other's closet," she said. "Write about it. You have one minute." I put the pen to paper, started writing, and here's what emerged...It was black, lacy, a size 42 DD. She wore a B cup...barely. As the woman stared at the big black bra hidden in the corner of her husband's closet, she couldn't help wondering -- did it belong to another woman...or to him? The paragraph was rough, but when I read it aloud to the group, everyone laughed. I thought I might be on to something.

And then there are the book ideas that sneak up out of nowhere and surprise you. These can't be easily explained. My debut novel for teens, THROUGH HER EYES, is one such story. I'm not really sure where the idea came from. I went to sleep one night thinking that I'd like to write a novel for a teen audience, and the next morning I awoke with the bare bones idea. I see fragments of my own life in the story -- like the protagonist, Tansy Piper, I moved around a lot when I was growing up. (something like 24 times, actually!) And the creepy house Tansy lives in after she moves to Texas resembles one we pass by when my husband and I drive to our cabin in Colorado. Old photographs play a big part in the plot, and I've always loved old pictures and find myself wishing I could step into one and experience life back then. I incorporated that wish into the book, as well. But overall, I have no idea what inspired the rest of the story; it simply emerged as I wrote.


If you're a writer searching for a story, pay attention to the life you're living, the world around you, the common things you might take for granted. Let your imagination wander. Though it's true that sometimes I really don't know where a story came from, more often than not the idea arises from an every day occurrence, a minor incident that seems so mundane it's easy to let it slip by unnoticed.

 Writers, what has inspired your story ideas for the books you've written?

Lyrics That Make Your Heart Bleed

by Jordan Dane

I don’t think I could write a YA book without thinking of music. Lyrics really ground me in a character’s world. They can be powerful. One of my favorite research things to do is discovering music for the book I’m working on. Maybe you can help inspire me for future books by sharing your favorite song and share why you LOVE it.


Sometimes an inspiration is only one song that triggers something in me about a character or feeling. Listening to certain songs can stir my creative juices and entice my characters to come out and play with me. When I know I’ll be writing a scene for a specific character, I often will listen to the song that reminds me of them before I start. That gets me in the mood. I love how lyrics can connect us all. Books are like that too.


I’d actually love to hear from readers when they find good songs with lyrics that make your heart bleed. Yeah, I tip the scales toward Emo when I write.


Two songs played a part in the writing of ON A DARK WING. Abbey Chandler has a crush on a boy she thinks is perfect, Nate Holden. He’s a great guy, but reminds her of all the things she’s not. Abbey doesn’t feel worthy, but that doesn’t stop her from fantasizing about the guy. The lyrics to the song “Not Meant to Be” by Theory of a Deadman became a melancholy reminder to her that she was never going to “get” the guy, but those same lyrics told a different story for another character. Her best friend, Tanner Lange, knew this song reminded Abbey of Nate, but Tanner had his own crush on his BFF, Abbey. Those lyrics worked him over, hard. When he heard that song, which Abbey played often, he knew she was thinking of someone else—someone with two good legs and not in a wheelchair. Here are a few lyrics that inspired me from “Not Meant to Be” by Theory of a Deadman and an excerpt from ON A DARK WING from Tanner.


“Not meant to be” by Theory of a Deadman (Inspiration Lyrics)


“Baby, I’m starting to see
Maybe we’re not meant to be.”
It’s never enough to say I love you.
No, it’s never enough to say I try.
It’s hard to believe,
That there’s no way out for you and me
And it seems to be the story of our lives.”


Excerpt from ON A DARK WING – Tanner


The sun had already gone down by the time Tanner got home from Anchorage. For the last hour, he’d been sitting in his wheelchair, looking out his bedroom window with only one lamp burning. As he listened to the song “Not Meant to Be”, one of Abbey’s favorite songs, he thought about her. The lyrics put him into an epic tailspin, but they seemed to make her happy, so he played the song because it reminded him of her.


He imagined her skulking through the woods on her way to see him. Sometimes she’d come to his front door, but the times he liked best was when she climbed the tree and came through his bedroom window. He knew that wasn’t going to happen tonight, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to see her.


Guess he missed his best friend—and not just a little bit.


Another song that I thought was very haunting for this story is “Gravity” by Sara Bareilles. The lyrics can make anyone long for love, the kind that doesn’t hurt. But in ON A DARK WING, Abbey comes face to face with the grief and guilt she feels for the part she played in her mother’s death and also must come to grips with the reality of her fantasy boy and what love truly is. Here is a beautiful YouTube video of the song with the lyrics and an excerpt from the book—from Abbey.


“Gravity” by Sara Bareilles (Video with Lyrics)




Excerpt from ON A DARK WING – Abbey



By the time my dad got done with his ax, freaking me out like he was Jason on Friday the 13th (so not funny), he came in breathing a little heavy and got a fire going in our stove. I smelled the wood burning and heard the crackling as I shut the door to my room. The place was always real quiet, which drove me crazier than usual. I had to have music in my ears and snag alone time behind closed doors, scarfing on a Kit Kat bar. Lying on my bed, I got completely wrapped in my tunes.


When one of my favorite Sara Bareilles’ songs came on my iPod—“Gravity”—it reminded me of Nate. Listening to her sing about wanting to drown in love and being fragile always made me cry. I imagined Nate looking at me, really seeing me. In my dreams, I looked thin and smelled really good too, like chocolate. Nate’s blue eyes were the color of new denim and they always made it hard for me to breathe. Even in my daydreams, it was the same. I wanted to know what it would be like to touch a boy, for real.


The lyrics made me ache to kiss him…and hold him…and know what it felt like to really be in love. When my throat tightened, tears rolled down my cheeks and my room turned into a major blur, making it easy to cuddle up in Nateworld. I would never even come close to having someone like him and he sure didn’t need me. He had a real life ahead of him. I could totally see him saving lives and doing real stuff, but that didn’t stop me from fantasizing. I closed my eyes and blocked out the cabin to picture him with me now.


That would’ve worked too—except for Dad.


He barged into my bedroom and ruined everything. I jumped off my pillows and wiped a hand over my face as I pulled the music from my ears.


“Come on, Dad. Knock.” I couldn’t look at him or else he’d know I’d been crying.



So for future reference in books to come, please share a song that you LOVE and share the reason it makes your heart bleed. Who knows? You could inspire me to use your name in my upcoming THE HUNTED series with Harlequin Teen. O’Dell Hutchinson of BookTwirps has already earned a character spot in book #1 – INDIGO AWAKENING – by suggesting DOWN by Jason Walker, an amazing song with powerful lyrics. Share a song that you love and you may inspire me to name a character after you.