Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

Writing is a funny thing. I spend months inside a story—creating, revising, refining—and then it’s published and I don’t see it again. It’s like having a really close friend for a year and then abandoning her. Sure, I have to spend time promoting each story. Most unfortunately, that never stops, but it isn’t the same as when I’m truly inside that story working it. Trying to find the absolute best order for the words so the story creates a physical reaction in the reader. Tears, laughter, racing pulse, gutted emotions, cheers—something, anything, or all of it at one point or the other between the covers. Most recently, I’m missing Cara and Nik from FindingThor . Their relationship isn’t quite as emotional as Ella and Ayden’s from Worth the Effort , but they have a lot more suspense and certainly more humor in their lives and I really miss working with them. Is this why stand alone books become series? The author simply misses her characters and has to discover the next advent...

My talented and generous critique buddy, Mary Waibel, has her review of Finding Thor on her blog. Please hop on over to Waibel's World and see what she has to say about my young adult romantic suspense releasing Thursday!  So, this week I’m talking book covers. I admit, I have been known to judge a book by its cover and while browsing Goodreads, or maybe Amazon, recently I noticed that purple seems to be the new black. So many pretty book covers whose color schemes revolve around purple. At first I wondered if I was simply noticing the purple covers because Finding Thor’s cover is in purples, but so was Beware of the White, and I didn’t notice them then, so I'm going out on a limb and declaring a trend. Anyway, that got me thinking about which books I read because of the cover. Not blurb. Not reputation or buzz. Simply because I thought, "Oooo, what's that one about?" as soon as I saw it. So here are a few: The Dark Divine – I love the stark leg...

So I’ve had this mind itch for a while now. I’ll be listening to a book and maybe I’m completely immersed in it, wishing I could just shut off life until I’ve listened to each and every word – or I’m huffing and puffing in frustration over…something. Anything. And in both cases it’ll cross my mind, Would I like (or dislike) this book so much if I were reading it inside my head? Narrators can make all the difference in the world. I’ve fallen in crush with narrators (not always the character). The two that come to mind are Steven Kaplan ; Legend/Prodigy/Champion by Marie Lu, The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler and Sunil Malhotra ; Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. I’ve absolutely loved listening to KateSimses  in Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie. I think her voice really fit the character. However, there seems to be that other side of the coin thing. ReneeRaudman , narrator for I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d have to Kill You by Ally Carter ju...

Last week I posted one reason why it is important for writers to read a lot. So this week I thought I'd recap my 2014 reads. According to my Goodreads shelf "Read in 2014" I read 105 books last year. I've been able to read more titles each year and I attribute that to my changing reading habits. Well, that and a bit of obsession. I do read a lot, but now you'll also often find me with my earbuds shoved in my ears and an audiobook playing. I really think that expanding the audiobook habit to when I'm cooking, driving (I play it through my stereo, I don't wear earbuds while driving - that's dangerous!), exercising has helped me add many more books to my completed shelf. I'm not to fond of talking ill of books. Every book has an audience. I'm including these books on my worst list because I didn't enjoy them. Maybe it was the characterization. Perhaps the story was flat or difficult to follow. Whatever the reasons, they are my reasons an...

Me & my daughter - riverside reading When asked what advice I have for beginning writers I usually include, “Read a lot.” I truly believe it’s an important step to developing your own writing voice. The funny thing is I no longer consider myself a beginning writer – I’d probably classify myself as emerging. Yet I’ve realized the advice is still valid. Recently I’ve had a run of what I consider lackluster books. The writing is decent. The plots are fine. But in the end there isn’t enough to really make me want to talk about them to anyone. Maybe there is little or no chemistry between the characters. Usually there are no surprises. I almost always read through to the end of these books, hoping something will happen to redeem them in the end. Then when it doesn’t I’m left feeling like it was a waste of my very precious reading time to have invested in a “formula” story. Guess what. It wasn’t a waste at all! This is the exciting part… As I’m reading stories that h...

Three Times A Charm is on hiatus, because I haven't been recruiting. Feel free to contact me if you're an author, illustrator, editor, blogger, publicist, publisher involved in children's publishing and would like to be interviewed. So instead, I'm talking about the craft of writing. Creating a character arc is difficult, but crucial to the enjoyability factor of your story. Creating an arc over a series is even more challenging. In order for your readers to care, your character has to change and grow during their story. A friend of mine posted a picture of a scene from my book, Polar Opposites , on my Facebook page and the status called the characters in the scene, “Assholes!” Awesome! I squealed and clapped. Why am I okay with this? It’s the emotion behind the post that thrills me. Yes, literary characters can be jerks, too. And, as is the case in the scene my friend highlighted, it is often intentional. So many things have to come together to shape th...

I'm so excited to bring you the cover of POLAR OPPOSITES: Super Villain Academy, Book 2 The supers are balanced. Academies have altered their curriculum to teach both sides of the super power spectrum. All’s well in the super world. Right? When Mystic kidnaps Oceanus, Jeff learns it isn’t all right. Turning to the newly balanced supers for assistance, he panics to find they’ve done nothing to rescue Oceanus. When no ransom request follows, he worries Mystic’s plan never included returning his girlfriend. Frustrated, he’s forced to work with the only super willing to help. Oceanus’ ex-villain, ex-boyfriend, Set. Mystic isn’t the only one hiding something. Nothing about Jeff is balanced. Temper flares result in scorched clothing or flying furniture, and his charm has become an indiscriminate people-magnet. Jeff is convinced, or maybe just hopeful, that his lack of control is directly related to Oceanus being gone. But will he and Set find her before Jeff loses contro...

Word Count            Submissions              Rejections        Acceptances  6,000                          1                           0                        0 Improve your focus. Commit to the creed .  Sometimes progress in writing has very little to do with word count or submissions. I haven't produced a lot of new material this month, but I was busy publishing a novella , so I'm not too concerned about my lack of production. The publishing side of things is so very different from the creative side. Since it was my first indie title, I had a learning curve to work through. Obviously, nothing insurmountable. My husband is fond of the saying, "If it was easy, everybody would be doing it." Well, ...

Word Count            Submissions              Rejections        Acceptances        15137                           1                               1                          0 I'm working hard on preparing for book releases! How exciting is that?  I'm currently running a PICK MY BLURB contest for my young adult contemporary romance novella, WORTH THE EFFORT: ELLA'S STORY, which releases next month. Please hop over and cast your vote for the blurb that makes you want to read my book. Then enter to win an eARC of the book. Be among the first to read it. I've been busy filming and editing YouTube videos for an interview series I have coming up for June's release of POLAR ...

I dream every night. As I wake I’m aware of my dream, though the specifics aren’t always clear. This morning was like that. Since my mind is always active at night, I don’t give the elusive dreams any additional thought. But today when I walked into the kitchen, past a picture of my mom, one specific moment of last night’s dream slammed back into me. I lost my mom a couple years ago. Those of you who have experienced loss, know you never, ever stop missing your loved ones. My grief has progressed to the point where I smile whenever I think of her, and only rarely get hit with those aching moments of emptiness. Last night in my dream, I was sitting cross-legged on the ground. I don’t remember why. I have no clue what I was doing beforehand or what I intended to do afterward. Someone plopped down next to me and I glanced casually to see who it was. It was my mother. I gasped, “Mom!” I was confused how she could be there. I knew she was supposed to be dead, but I didn...

Pantser – noun/verb hybrid.              Author who does not plan, plot or outline before sitting down to a blank page. One who writes by the seat of his/her pants. By definition a pantser might be thought of as a whimsical creature. I imagine she frolics through fields of daisies communing with rabbits and all the while arranging copious amounts of very fine words that make up lovely, lyrical stories. A plotter (one who mulls, plans and outlines) probably imagines a pantser as one who scratches her bum through her saggy, raggedy sweatpants. Sits at the computer, with a cigarette hanging from her mouth, a long ash dangling wretchedly close to the keyboard and has the gall to yawn and sniff before beginning her project. Reality is actually a bit of both. Without the dangling ash. At least in my case. I’ve always been a pantser, but I’ve also been a muller. And both of those have worked against me in the past. As a pantser I can wri...

Welcome to Three Times A Charm. I love meeting new authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the children’s publishing industry and sharing their careers with my readers. Today I'm happy to be hosting a stop on LRW Lee's book release tour. LRW, please tell us a little about you. As early as 8 years old, after reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis, I wanted to write a book. My family didn’t have a lot of money and my older brother and I were encouraged to use our imaginations to entertain ourselves.  And use them we did – climbing trees and tree forts, using a quilt for a matchbox car city, making puppets and putting on shows, and much more and my creativity and imagination grew. I went to college and got a degree in Accounting.  However, most folks frown on “creative accounting”, so I put my imagination on hold.  My business and creative interests eventually led me to found and grow a successful company which, with...

Happy New Year Boys and Girls! Sorry the blog has been on radio silence. I’ve been contemplating its future. I still haven’t come to a decision, so I guess things will continue on—as is—until I have some sort of blog epiphany. Those happen, right? Today I want to talk about Facebook. There are many social networks out there and I’m active on several of them. Regardless of their seeming self-sabotage, I prefer Facebook to any others. What do I mean by self-sabotage? I’m referring to their need to make constant changes that tend to alienate so many people. Though I sometimes find it tiring to log on and find buttons/tabs switched from the left to the right, rearranged columns, or a new font for the notifications…most of the changes simply take getting used to. But some of those changes are less obvious and harmful to those of us trying to create a presence on the site. Most recently (beginning of December), Facebook changed the algorithm used to decide what shows up in...

Welcome to Three Times A Charm. I love meeting new authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the children’s publishing industry and sharing their careers with my readers. Today’s guest is author, Angela Brown. Welcome to Strands of Thought, Angela! Can you tell us a little about you, please? I’m on the hunt for that elusive good night sleep, a slippery devil to grasp between my full-time day gig, single-mommydom, continuous pursuit of publishing my YA/NA/MG/PB writing projects, and sneaking in wonderful reads that take me on adventures, make me cry and make me laugh. Chocolate is a dear friend of mine. Wild Cherry Pepsi is my addiction. My daughter is the light of my life J Holy smokes you are busy! My hat is off to you, Angela, for juggling such a full schedule. Tell us about your most recent novel. At its core, Neverlove is a story of breaking free and forbidden love. For seventeen-year-old Abigail, one rash decision leads to an unexpect...

Kill your darlings is a term frequently used in writing that I’ve seen interpreted many different ways. So I went in search of the true meaning of kill your darlings. Urban Dictionary : Kill your darlings “In writing, you must kill your darlings.” --William Faulkner This literary advice refers to the dangers of an author using personal favorite elements. While these may hold special meaning for the author, they can cause readers to roll their eyes for reasons such as: - Purple prose   - Narm   -Egregious overuse of a word or phrase Did he seriously just use the word "egregious" up there? Dude, kill your darlings. William Faulkner supposedly advised writers to kill their "darlings," those little bits of glitter a writer thinks are simply marvelous. To the reader lacking that maternal attitude, they are at best distracting, at worst a reason to stop reading. (Wiki, maybe? hard to tell who to credit so here's the link ) I was also ...

Welcome to Three Times A Charm. I love meeting new authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the children’s publishing industry and sharing their careers with my readers. Today’s guest is children’s author, Sharon Ledwith. Welcome to Strands of Thought! Can you tell us a little about you, please? I am the author of the middle-grade/YA time travel series, THE LAST TIMEKEEPERS, available through Musa Publishing. When I’m not writing, researching, or revising, I enjoy reading, yoga, kayaking, time with family and friends, and single malt scotch. I live in the wilds of Muskoka in Central Ontario, Canada, with my hubby, a water-logged yellow Labrador and moody calico cat. For some reason I keep thinking only real woman drink single malt scotch! Lol. Sharon, tell us about Legend of the Timekeepers . There is no moving forward without first going back. Lilith was a young girl with dreams and a family before the final destruction of Atlantis shat...

Welcome to Three Times A Charm. I love meeting new authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the children’s publishing industry and sharing their careers with my readers. Today’s guest is author, N.W. Harris. Welcome to Strands of Thought, Neil. Tell us a little about you, please. I was born at the end of the Vietnam War and raised on a horse farm near a small town in North Georgia, my imagination evolved under the swaying pines surrounding my family’s log home. On summer days that were too hot, winter days that were too cold, and every night into the wee morning hours, I read books. In addition to writing, I traveled the world as a submariner in the Navy, worked as a nurse, and then started a property management company. My studies have included biology and anthropology at U.C. Santa Barbara and medicine at SUNY Buffalo. I live in sunny Southern California with my wife and two children. I write like I reads, constantly. ...