Getting Your Write On!

Hi, P. J. Hoover here, and it was back to the Lodge o' Death for a writing retreat earlier this month. Sure, we all turn up with thoughts on what we're going to work on, but part of being an author is being flexible. Like getting last minute revision notes and working on that instead of the planned activity. Still, when it comes to writing, there is no where else I'd rather be than off in the woods with some of my favorite writing gals, pouring out the words.

(For my last retreat post, check here.)

 Retreaters without antlers

Bottom (L to R): Jenny Moss, Christine (her daughter), Nikki Loftin, and Bethany Hegedus

Center (L to R): P. J. Hoover (me), Cory Putman Oakes, Kari Anne Holt, Jessica Lee Anderson, and Stephanie Pellegrin

Top (L to R): Sam Clark, Jo Whittemore, Salima Alikhan, Vanessa Lee, and Madeline Smoot

Retreaters with antlers

Highlights from the retreat include...

A gorgeous sunrise on the drive there!

 A great location and perfect weather!

The right people make the retreat what it is!

Fun writer peeps to hang with!

L to R: Madeline Smoot, Jessica Lee Anderson, Stephanie Pellegrin, and Kari Anne Holt

 

And more fun peeps!

L to R: Christine (Jenny's daughter), Nikki Loftin, Jenny Moss

 Food is a completely important part of any retreat!

 Chocolate!

Snacks!

Fruit!

The Lodge o' Death isn't called The Lodge o' Death for nothing. Sorry, baby deer.

 sniff, sniff

Other fun activities include chatting, reading, walking, yoga, and Zumba!

 Evening chatting and readings! with Cory Putman Oakes and Kari

 

After lunch with Jessica, Kari, and Stephanie

The whole crew (minus me) at the giant table

 These were the creepiest cows in the world!

And this sink gives me nightmares. I worry it will come alive.

 A diorama of a deer with sea shells (with Stephanie)

Thanks, Lodge o' Death, for another great retreat!

*****

P. J. Hoover is the author of the upcoming dystopia/mythology YA book, SOLSTICE (Tor Teen, June 2013), the upcoming Egyptian mythology MG book, TUT (Tor Children's, Winter 2014), and the middle-grade SFF series, THE FORGOTTEN WORLDS BOOKS (CBAY, 2008-2010). You can read more about her and her books on P. J.'s website or blog.

Happy New(ish) Year

By Dan Haring

2013 already? Almost February already? Holy cow. Well, happy new year everyone! I'm sorry for this being my first appearance here in a while. Work and writing and life have been pretty busy lately. We have about seven weeks to finish up the movie Epic, which is what I'm currently working on. I'm really excited about it, and you can check out the trailer here.


As far as writing is concerned, I'm just finishing up a pretty major revision on my MG fantasy book. It feels like I've been revising this book forever and I'm pretty sick of the process, but I have to admit it keeps getting better. So I'm definitely glad I did it, it just wasn't tons of fun. But that's the life, right? So hopefully this will be the version my agent feels is ready to go out into the world. Fingers crossed!

At the beginning of the year, you know, exactly four weeks ago, I did a quick check to see how I did on my 2012 revisions. Overall I did all right. Still didn't hit some things I really wanted to, but if felt like I put up a pretty good fight.

So I'm sitting at the (almost) beginning of another year, and I'm trying to come up with new goals for this year. I don't know if it's a copout or not, but I'm thinking about just keeping the goals I didn't hit from last year.

Honestly, right now I'm pretty happy with life. I have an amazing family, great job, and I'm able to write and do side projects. There's always room for growth and progress, and I want to keep striving for those. But right now I really just want to enjoy life, enjoy each day for what it is. I want to enjoy the little moments and not always be hoping and wishing and waiting for things.

Because hey, I'm alive for another day, and that's pretty cool. All the best to you and yours this coming year!

Kismet Book Tour Winners Announced!

Jordan Dane
@JordanDane

Thanks to Heather & Danny at the always amazing Kismet Book Tours. They made the virtual tour so much fun for me. I appreciate all the great blogs who participated too. Each one had a unique community of active followers. I loved all the comments. Thanks for making me feel like a rock star, everyone!

The winners for Indigo Awakening books are:

• Heather
• Erin
• Samantha
• Len
• Kai
• Meagan

 
The Grand Prize winner of the HarlequinTEEN gift pack is:

• Emmalee

 
Kismet has notified the winners and HarlequinTEEN will get the books and grand prize shipped. Thanks, Lisa!

When Characters Get Too Wordy

by Amanda Stevens

I’m not the best person to blog on the subject of writing because I mostly do everything by instinct or trial and error.  I never stop to analyze why, when or how, and I don’t like to follow a lot of rules.  But there is one trick I’ve learned over the years that I’m more than happy to pass along, although I have a feeling it may be one of those things that doesn’t work for, well, anyone but me.  Nevertheless, here we go.

Years ago I attended a workshop where the speaker claimed that female writers often over-write their male characters, especially when it comes to dialogue.  We have a tendency to have our pretend men speak the way we would like real-life men to speak, i.e. more like us.  I don’t know if this is true for most or even a few female writers, but it struck a chord with me.  My male characters do tend to get a little chatty. 
 

So my trick is simply this: If I have a male character that is getting too verbose, I allow Clint Eastwood circa Two Mules for Sister Sara to slip into my head. To be clear, none of my characters look like Clint or sound like Clint or even speak like Clint.  I’m not even a big Clint Eastwood fan.  But having him 'talk' for my male characters allows me to trim their dialogue.  Then I simply go back in and tweak word choice, phrasing and tags to suit my real character.

Ta-da.  Tip of the day, for whatever it’s worth.

Oh, and Cillian Murphy seems to works for me, too.