June Wrap Up

Seriously, guys, where did 2012 go? How could it possibly be halfway over already?

On the bright note, June was a way better month for me than May. I think I managed to accomplish most of my goals. Here's the breakdown.

• Write 10,5000 words. I wrote 10,700.
• Have a polished MS for CH, along with a complete query letter and synopsis. I don't have a polished CH yet, but I do have a complete(ish) query letter and synopsis. Well, a complete first draft of each. And I'm halfway through another round of edits on CH.
• Get 125 followers on Twitter and 75 followers on my blog. I have 132 followers on Twitter and 77 followers on my blog. (and a happy dance)
• Enter at least two bloghops. I did the First Fight, First Kiss Blogfest and the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Bloghop.

Woo-hoo! Not too shabby! And now for July's goals:

• Write 11,000 words. The 500 words/day goal is pretty easy, but it worked out well last month because I was able to do a lot more editing. So I think I'll stick with it for another month.
• Have a polished MS for CH, along with a complete query letter and synopsis. If I keep making it a goal, someday I might actually achieve it.
• Get 150 followers on Twitter and 100 followers on my blog.
• Enter at least two bloghops. Right now I'm thinking about the Hookers and Hangers Bloghop and the What If Blogfest.
• Submit at least one short story for a contest/magazine submission. I finished a short story last month that I'd love to do something with, so I might try to send it out to a few places. It's MG fantasy (dragons and stuff), so if you know of any place that it might fit, please let me know.

I hope everyone else had a productive June. Here's to a great July!

Teaser Tuesday - 6/26/12

Last week I was reading Bitten, this week I'm reading Stolen, book 2 in Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series.

When a young witch tells Elena that a group of humans are kidnapping supernaturals, Elena ignores the warning. After all, everyone knows there’s no such thing as witches. As for the thought of other ‘supernaturals’, well, she’d just rather not dwell on the possibility. Soon, however, she’s confronted with the truth about her world, when she’s kidnapped and thrown into a cell-block with witches, sorcerers, half-demons and other werewolves. As Elena soon discovers, dealing with her fellow captives is the least of her worries. In this prison, the real monsters carry the keys.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

I managed to pull my belly off the ground and hauled myself into the narrow crevice between the foot of the bed and the wall, the one place where Winsloe couldn't see me. I wedged into the tiny space, tucked my tail under me, and surrendered to the pain.

Awards

Aw, man, you guys are awesome. And because of that, I have a bunch of awards to give out today. And because they all have stuff associated with them, this post is going to be kind of long. So in order of... whichever link I clicked on first, here goes.

I got the "One Lovely Blog Award" from Mina Lobo (thanks, Mina!). Here are the rules:

• Name, thank, and link back to the blogger
• List seven facts about yourself
• Pass the award to 15 other bloggers and leave them comments on their blogs to alert them

Here are 7 facts:

1. I love making lists, preferably alphabetical ones.
2. I could eat cherries and string cheese every day.
3. I can't remember a time before I wanted to be a writer.
4. When I was little, I tried reading while riding my bicycle. It didn't go well.
5. I'm a huge college football fan.
6. When I was around three or four, I used to watch Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers every single day. Then I watched it again every day in high school when I found out it was on at 5:30 in the morning while I was eating breakfast.
7. I name all my laptops and refer to them by name often enough that my mom has taken to calling them by their names too.

Next, Alyssa over at Life is Good gave me the Liebster Blog Award (thanks, Alyssa!). Here are the rules for this one:

• Post 10 facts about yourself.
• Answer 10 questions the tagger has given you and give 10 questions to the people you've tagged.
• Choose 10 people with fewer than 200 followers and link them in your post.
• Tell them you've tagged them.
• Remember, no tag backs!

I'm going to use the 7 facts from above, and add three more:

8. I watch around 30 television shows per season (not including the summer, which is usually far lower).
9. After spending a month in France, I can say exactly two things: "Sorry, I don't speak French; do you speak English?" and "I would like a medium cup of dark chocolate ice cream, please."
10. I had a goldfish that lived for six years. When I got it, it was small and black. By the time it died, it was orange, over an inch long, and its eyes bugged out of its head. It mutated to adapt to its surroundings.

And these are the questions from Alyssa:

1. What's your favorite sport? (To watch or to do.) To watch is probably college football, though everything in the Olympics (especially beach volleyball), hockey, and the Little League World series all come close. To do is probably swimming.
2. What genre do you write in? And if your not writing a book, what genre do you like to read in? Most urban fantasy, though I've been working on a contemporary YA book as well.
3. What's the scariest movie you've ever seen? The Ring. And I know it's not really that scary, but I don't watch scary movies. This was a mistake I made when I was 15 and thought it was wimpy to be afraid of scary movies. Turns out, I should have been a wimp. I didn't sleep for a week.
4. What was the happiest moment of your life? I honestly can't pick out one moment that stands out above all the happy moments I've had. I spend a lot of time being happy.
5. What is your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving. Food, family and fun... what's not to like?
6. What book are you reading right now? Stolen by Kelley Armstrong. Again.
7. What superpower do you wish you had? I think my answer to this questions changes a lot. Maybe the ability to fly. Or to control fire.
8. What is your favorite drink? Vanilla Coke.
9. If you could make a wish come true what would you wish for? Be honest. World peace. No, um, I'd wish for health and happiness for the people I love. And maybe for the ability to do more to give that to everyone else. (I sound so noble there. It's actually a massive guilt complex that makes me think like that.)
10. If you could be a character in one one of the books you've read, who would it be? Jo March from Little Women. I've always related to her, and I love how she was tough and successful, but also dedicated and loyal to her family. With all her faults, she always strove to be a good person, even if she didn't always understand what that meant. But she held her own when she wasn't willing to compromise (which wasn't an easy thing for a woman in the 1860s).

Next up, Jaycee DeLorenzo gave me the Fabulous Blog Ribbon (thanks, Jaycee!). For this one:

• Name five of your most fabulous moments, either in real life or in the blogosphere.
• Name five things you love.
• Name five things you hate.
• Pass the Ribbon on to five other bloggers. (Leave them a comment to notify them of this.)

Five Fabulous Moments

1. The day I finished my first novella at 12 years old.
2. The day I got my black belt in karate.
3. The day I was hired as a salaried employee with benefits at my first job.
4. The first time I stood up for someone else on the playground, even though it got me teased more.
5. Being made the senior production manager at the news station I worked for in college.

Five Things I Love

1. My family and friends
2. Laughing
3. Writing and reading
4. Movie trailers
5. Ice cream

Five Things I Hate

1. Hypocrites
2. Passive aggression
3. Love triangles
4. People who complain about the government but don't vote (or try in any way to fix the problems)
5. Homophobia

And finally, Kathy McKendry gave me the Booker Award (thanks, Kathy!). For this one, I have to share the top 5 books I've ever read. I can't tell you how difficult this was.

1. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - Read my A-Z Post to find out more about why.
   
   
   
2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - It took me three tries before I was finally able to finish this, but I've read it about once a year since then. I just love the relationships in it, and the way the characters develop into adults.
   
   
   
3. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie - Seriously, what's not to like about Peter Pan? I read the book long after I saw the movies and fell in love with it, and the book is really beautifully written. Simple enough for a child, but artistic enough for adults.
   
   
   
4. Bookends by Jane Green - I don't read as much contemporary as I did when I was in high school, but this is another book I try to read once every couple years. There's nothing overly special about it, but the characters are so well done, and I get a warm, fuzzy feeling every time I finish it.
   
   
   
5. Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong - Technically, this is the third book in her Otherworld series, but it was the first one I read. It was also the first urban fantasy book I ever read. Now I've written an urban fantasy book and read more of them than I can count. And if this book hadn't been so darned good, none of that would have happened.

And I'm tagging EVERYBODY! Because you're all awesome and deserve shiny awards. So anyone who wants to claim it can. And for the Liebster Award, here are my questions:

1. Who's your favorite Harry Potter character?
2. What's your perfect age?
3. What's your favorite dessert?
4. Would you rather be a contestant in a beauty pageant or on Fear Factor?
5. Would you rather be dumb as a brick but beautiful, or a certified genius and ugly enough to crack mirrors?
6. If you see a crime happening and you can safely stop it but choose not to, are you accountable for what happens?
7. How many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man?
8. What's your favorite smell?
9. Who was your favorite teacher when you were in school and why?
10. What would you do if you woke up one morning with an extra eye that could see through walls?

And that's that. Happy Monday!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Blog Hop

So last month for the Oh My Hero! Blog Hop I posted about Adrian and Grey, the two heroes from one of my WIPs. Today, Jaycee DeLorenzo and Victoria Smith are hosting the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Blog Hop, and I have an opportunity to introduce you to the book's main character, Bex Addison. She's being interviewed by Cady Brownell, a 27-year-old MagLET agent undercover with Bex, Adrian, Grey and the others.

Bex Addison

Cady Brownell: Hi, Bex, it's good to see you.
Bex Addison: Good to see you too.

CB: Let's jump right into it. How would you describe Adrian and Grey?
BA: Adrian's... either an idiot or the best partner I could ever ask for, depending on what he's doing at the moment. *laughs* Normally an idiot.
CB: But you love him anyway.
BA: I do. In that way you love really annoying little brothers. Grey's... definitely more complex. More cautious. He actually thinks before he acts. And he's passionate, maybe even obsessive, about fighting magic cartels.
CB: And hot.
BA: You--you think? I haven't really noticed. I mean, we're both professionals, and there's not a lot of time to think about things like that when you're undercover--
CB: And hot.
BA: Um... sure. If you say so.

CB: So what gets a guy a second date with you, Bex?
BA: Well... just getting a first date usually helps. I don't like to date.
CB: Haha, well, assuming they get that far then.
BA: Oh, I dunno. He has to be able to hold a conversation. And it's not just that he has to be able to hold up his end--though that's important--but he also has to listen to my end. *pause* Among other things.

CB: What's the one thing you believe can tell a lot about a person?
BA: How they treat people who aren't as powerful as they are. Like how a leader treats his followers, or how a rich man treats his staff. The mark of a truly good person is that they treat everyone with respect.

CB: And last question. Boxers or briefs on your guy?
BA: *with a wink* Neither.

CB: Thanks for talking to me, Bex!
BA: Thanks for having me!

When I think of Bex, I think of Pat Benatar songs, and I went back and forth on a couple of them before I finally decided this best represents her.

Thanks for hosting, Jaycee and Victoria! I'm looking forward to checking everyone else's out!

100!

Wow. This is my 100th post since I started this blog back in October. So I thought I'd make a list of the 10 (because 100 is a lot) things I've learned since then (in no particular order).

1. You have to reach out to others if you want them to reach out to you.
2. There's a difference between people who write and people who say they want to write.
3. There's no difference between people who write and people who are paid to write (well, except the money).
4. Try to make decisions early about pen names and website URLs because changing them is a pain, especially once you have more followers.
5. April is a very long month when you're trying to blog everyday.
6. As much as possible, avoid being condescending. Even the best advice will be ignored if people think you're looking down on them.
7. Everyone's writing process is unique.
8. Be true to yourself. Unless you're Jeffrey Dahmer, people will like you more for your honesty.
9. It's as much fun to give away books to other people as it is to win them for yourself.
10. The online writing community is one of the nicest, safest places in the world.

Also, a few random notes:

• Go check out Falling for Fiction to get some advice on critiquing and being critiqued.
• The Girls Just Wanna Have Fun bloghop is tomorrow! Also, check out my sidebar for some other bloghops that are coming up. Right there. On the left. No, the other left.
• If you've never used the program Evernote, I advise everyone to check it out. I've been using it almost exclusively for my new WIP, Wallflower, and I love it. I have separate notes for all my characters, notes, and random plot snippets, which works out really well since I'm writing the book out of order (no, I can't explain why. It's just happening. I'm as confused as you are). Plus, it syncs to the website, my desktop app, and my phone app, meaning I'm virtually never without the notes for this story. Did I mention I love it?
  *This post is in no way sponsored by or endorsed by Evernote.

That's about it. Have a good Thursday, everyone!

Teaser Tuesday - 6/19/12

Every once in awhile, I just get the urge to re-read. And last week, I read Kelley Armstrong's The Hunter and the Hunted, which had a teaser for the first six chapters of her upcoming book, Thirteen. Thirteen is the final book in the Otherworld series, and I'm very much looking forward to it. So reading the teaser not only made my anticipation worse, but it basically forced me to go re-read some of the other books in the series. Starting with Bitten, the first book.

Elena Michaels is the world’s only female werewolf. And she’s tired of it. Tired of a life spent hiding and protecting, a life where her most important job is hunting down rogue werewolves. Tired of a world that not only accepts the worst in her–her temper, her violence–but requires it. Worst of all, she realizes she’s growing content with that life, with being that person.

So she left the Pack and returned to Toronto where she’s trying to live as a human. When the Pack leader calls asking for her help fighting a sudden uprising, she only agrees because she owes him. Once this is over, she’ll be squared with the Pack and free to live life as a human. Which is what she wants. Really.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

It took over a half hour to complete the process, triple the normal amount of time. Did it hurt? Well, I don't have a lot of experience with nonshapechanging pain, but I feel safe in saying that being drawn and quartered might have hurt a bit less.

Cover Reveals

Today's been an exciting day! Two awesome people revealed their book covers.

First was Kyra Lennon, revealing her cover for Game On.

And here's a blurb about the book:

After swapping her small town life to work for a top U.S soccer team, Leah Walker thought she could finally leave the ghosts of her past behind. However, when she meets serial womanizer, Radleigh McCoy, the memories of her old life come swarming back, and she is forced to ask herself whether she has really changed at all.

Seriously, how cute is that cover? I just want to mess up Radleigh's hair even more.

And also revealing her cover (on her birthday weekend no less) was Chantele Sedgwick for Not Your Average Fairy Tale.

And here's the blurb:

Ash Summerland has it all–good looks, popularity, and the best grades at The Academy of Magical Beings. Ready to complete his last assignment in order to graduate, Ash is confident he will get the apprenticeship he wants. When he opens the letter from the Council, he is shocked to discover he has been assigned to apprentice Lady Shenelle, Keeper of Happy Endings. A.K.A. the head fairy godmother. Ash is forced to grant three wishes to a troubled human girl named Kendall, and ultimately give her a "happy ever after". But Kendall turns out to be more than he bargained for. Still grieving over her father's death, Kendall doesn't want anything to do with him. And worst of all, she doesn't believe in happy endings.

I love this cover too. It's gorgeous, especially the wings and wand.

On a side note, I finished Nyrae Dawn's What a Boy Needs last night. As much as I really liked What a Boy Wants, I think I may have liked this one more. Jaden's such a complex character, and I felt like I really related to him. And the end was great. I don't want to spoil anything, but you should all go read it.

Happy Friday!