Top Ten Favorites

My latest Top Ten Favorites:

1.) Revising an old manuscript. When I got inspired to revise one of my early manuscripts, I was super-excited. I don't have a lot of free time right now to write (because of my work schedule), and it's harder for me to get in drafting mode than revising mode. So this is the perfect thing for me to do right now. Plus, I finally figured out what was wrong with it after letting it sit for 3+ years!

2.) This chocolate from my CP Julie Dao:

Chocolate covered potato chips! Do I need to say anything else? Nope. Go buy some!

3.) GAME OF THRONES is back on TV. My husband isn't as excited because there are tons of "This didn't happen in the books!" from me... whoops :)

4.) April vacation! This means yoga pants and hoodies and writing every day! Woohoo!

5.) Date nights at the bookstore (Barnes and Noble)!

From the cafe: I got a tall caramel flan (iced) latte and my husband got a chocolate cupcake. From the bookstore: I got THE DUFF by Kody Keplinger and my husband got HEART-SHAPED BOX by Joe Hill.

6.) The caramel flan latte from Starbucks. So good!

7.) Writer friends. I'm super-lucky to have super-awesome, supportive writer friends. And it's really great to come home from a long day at work and find a package in the mail from a CP or Pitch Wars mentor! <333

From the lovely Julie Dao

From the awesome Stephanie Garber

8.) Being able to buy books by people I "know" (on Twitter, through other friends, etc). It's just so cool!

9.) "Rebel Love Song" by Black Veil Brides. The song makes me think of my manuscript THE TREASURE HUNT. (My characters should totally be in the video instead of that couple!) ;P

10.) Plants vs. Zombies 2. I randomly started playing it again and I can't get enough. It's so fun!


What are your favorite things?

Top Ten Favorites

I thought I'd post about my top ten favorite things at the moment.

1.) The new rocky road syrup at Dunkin Donuts. I don't like rocky road ice cream, but I loooove this coffee flavor! OMG. It's so good.

2.) The song "Kick Me" by Sleeping with Sirens. I can't stop listening to it. LOVE it! And I really like the video. I saw them this month and they opened the show with this song. (Explicit lyrics)

3.) Even though I read it during Christmas break, I can't stop thinking about I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson. Love love love this book! I went shopping for a friend's birthday the other day, and I was going to buy her the book, until I realized I already bought it for her at Christmas. Ha ha! If you haven't read it, you NEED to. Seriously.

4.) BREAKING BAD's spin-off series BETTER CALL SAUL. It's so good. And dark. And funny. And every time a character from BREAKING BAD makes an appearance, I squee! I hate waiting week-to-week to watch a new episode.

5.) Writing contests. I love them! The contest aspect is awesome, but I love them because they're a great way to make writer friends. I just entered Pitch Madness for the first time. The wait to find out if I've been picked is killer, but that's part of the fun. Fingers crossed!

6.) New socks. I bought a six pack of Puma neon ankle socks and they're awesome. They're super cushy!

7.) Writer friends getting literary agents. Two of my CPs got agents (within a week of each other!) this month. Yay!!!

8.) Vacation. I'm on vacation this week. Woohoo! No explanation necessary, right?

9.) SPOTIFY. I don't know how I lived without it.

10.) Spending my Sunday nights watching THE WALKING DEAD with my husband and dogs. Soon, it'll be replaced with GAME OF THRONES and my husband will have to listen to me complain about the differences between show and books. (Because that's totally his favorite part!)


What are some of your favorite things at the moment?

The Writing Process Blog Tour

Hello!

The lovely EM Castellan invited me to join the Writing Process Blog Tour. She's super-sweet and is my CP's CP. (Does that make us CP cousins or something?) She's represented by Erin Niumata of Folio Literary and writes YA fantasy. She's also a contributor at There and Draft Again. You can find her on Twitter or her blog (where she always uses the coolest GIFs).

What am I currently working on?

I'm currently revising a YA romance called THE TREASURE HUNT, which I'm hoping will be done in time to enter Pitch Wars in August. TTH takes place in a coastal town in Maine during the summer of 1992. There's a treasure hunt, mixed-tapes, a secret admirer, and lots of late '80s and early '90s metal. (Here's my inspiration board if you're interested!)

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I usually write sci-fi or fantasy, so THE TREASURE HUNT differs from everything else I've ever written. But as far as how it differs from other YA romances, I'd say I haven't seen too many featuring metal heads. Also, my characters are often wooed by their love interests with food and drink.

Why do I write what I write?

As EM Castellan said in her post, I write things that I'd like to read. As a writer, you have to read your manuscript AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN, so it's important you write something you wouldn't mind reading over and over!

How does my individual writing process work?

I write down all my ideas in a Word Doc, so I don't forget them. When I have an idea that won't go away and I find myself thinking about it all the time, I realize it's time to work on it. I'm not much of a plotter. I usually have an idea about how it ends, but I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get there. (STRANGE ATTRACTORS is probably the only manuscript I really tried to plot out.) With THE TREASURE HUNT, I just started writing. I thought I knew a few things that were going to happen, but my characters ended up making up their own minds about how things were going to go. Other than the secret admirer and the treasure hunt, I figured the story out as I went.

I don't share my writing with anyone until I've gone through the rough draft a few times. I usually send my manuscript to one CP at a time. After I get their critique, I revise what needs to be revised before sending it to someone else, and so on.

Now it's time to tag some friends!

My wonderful CP Steph Sessa who writes YA SF. Because of her, I'm obsessed with Doctor Who (especially Eleven)!

My writer friend Emily Kate Muyskens who writes YA SF/F. We met through an online writing contest, and we also met in real life(!) at the NESCBWI conference in Springfield, MA.

If you'd like to be tagged, let me know in the comments! :)

#CPlove

It's common knowledge that a good critique partner is one of the most important things a writer can have.

The hard part is finding one you mesh with.

For me, finding critique partners took a long time. I looked online, mostly emailing other writers on CP match-up blog posts. And out of all the writers I emailed, I think only one emailed me back--but it was to say she already had her share of CPs and wished me luck in my search. When I wasn't having any luck finding an online CP, I looked for a local in-person writing group. But I couldn't find an in-person group that met my needs.

And then one day, the amazing Brenda Drake tweeted about CPSeek. It's exactly what it sounds like--a website dedicated to finding critique partners. I signed up right away and started reading query letters posted by other writers. I was too chicken to post my own, and instead I decided to approach two writers who had posted query letters that sounded interesting. I messaged them, asking if they'd want to trade first chapters. They both agreed!

While they both had different critiquing styles, they were both kind and constructive. Knowing what kind of critique partner you want is important. I'm a tad sensitive, so I prefer CPs who are truthful but kind in their critiquing style. (Or CPs who use HARRY POTTER references in their critiques!)

Contests are another great way to find critique partners. Last year, I found two more awesome critique partners through Brenda Drake's PITCH WARS contest. Twitter pitch parties are also helpful. I haven't found CPs or Beta-readers through pitch parties, but I know people who have. (Plus they are a great way to meet new online writer friends!)

And when you find good CPs, don't let them go!

There's nothing better than having someone you can vent to, brainstorm with, or cheer for. And I know I couldn't get through revising and querying without them. And without them, I wouldn't be obsessed with DOCTOR WHO or REIGN, the sight of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Oreos wouldn't make me smile, and I wouldn't have had the guts to sign up for a manuscript critique at NESCBWI. I <3 mine and consider them all great friends.

A, have you tried these?!

Hugs and thanks to Ambiguous A, Steph Sessa, Julie Dao, and Katie Bucklein for being the best CPs around!

Also, hugs and thanks to my awesome Pitch Wars mentor, Stephanie Garber! (If you're thinking about entering Pitch Wars this year, you should definitely submit to her. She's the best!)

How about you? Any CP stories? Shout outs to your awesome CPs or Beta readers?

NESCBWI 2014 & Meeting CPs IRL

If you read my first post, you know that I recently went to my second NESCBWI conference. This post was going to be about the conference, but I think other people have blogged about NESCBWI 2014 better than I could…so this may turn into a post about something else. We'll see!

In my daily life, I don't talk about writing with other people. Only a few select people know that I write (and even less know I'm a querying writer). I think a lot of other writers are the same way. Most people don't understand the publication process and everything that goes along with it, so it's hard to talk to non-writers (even friends and family) about the things you're going through. (Things like: form rejections, no responses, or your MC being difficult and not doing what she's supposed to do.)

This is what makes writers' conferences so much fun. You're surrounded by your peers, by people who know what you're going through. You can commiserate about the querying process and share tips and tricks. There's nothing better than talking to other writers.

Well, almost nothing. The one thing that's even better is getting the chance to talk face-to-face with online critique partners--people who have actually read your manuscript! CPs have fallen in love with your characters, told you when they hate your MC, helped you fix a previously unsolvable problem, been a personal sounding board for you, etc.

I finally had the chance to meet one of mine at the conference. I made plans with Julie Dao, my Pitch Wars teammate and critique partner, to go to the NESCBWI conference. She'd never been before, and we thought it would be a great opportunity for us to meet there. It was so awesome to finally meet in person. (Julie's the first writer friend that I've ever met IN REAL LIFE.)

We met on Friday afternoon in the hotel lobby. There was lots of smiling and hugging! After saying hello, we went in search of a Starbucks so we could sit and chat. Even though I was pretty sure there was a Starbucks around somewhere, we couldn't find one. We ended up going to a coffee shop that was in the mall across the street from the hotel instead. Because we had SO MUCH that we wanted to say, we started laughing, not knowing where to even start.  The time flew by. It was so easy to talk to each other and to talk about our manuscripts. It was so freeing, so cool, to be able to talk about our characters (in depth) with someone else who had read our stories. After coffee, we continued talking at dinner. (Julie made reservations at Nadim's, which was right near the hotel.)

Later that night, there was a Meet and Greet for the conference attendees in the hotel. I'd been too chicken to go by myself the previous year but this year, with Julie by my side, I wasn't as nervous! I didn't speak with any agents, but Julie was able to talk with an agent who has her full manuscript. It was awesome to see her so excited! I didn't speak to any agents, but I did run into a friend from Twitter, Emily Kate Muyskens. (Emily and I had met online through Cupid's Literary Connection's Blind Speed Dating Contest.) She was super-sweet and Julie and I met up with her again on Saturday.

Julie and I signed up for the same workshops on Saturday (Manuscript Revisions with Mandy Hubbard and Write What You Don't Know with Julie Berry and Kendra Levin). We both had great manuscript critiques. (Mine was with an agent and hers was with an editor.) Overall, it was a great time!

How about you? Have you ever met online critique partners IN REAL LIFE?