The Mysterious Case of Mandy Bad Blogger

So you may all have noticed that an impostor has been running the blog lately. That's right. I was going along just fine, when Mandy Bad Blogger snuck out of the shadows, whacked me over the head, and well. Kidnapped me. I barely escaped alive. I wish I could say the traumatic event is over, but she's still out there somewhere. This time the police are on the lookout. They're so helpful, the police.

Anywho. I'm still sorting out the damage Mandy Bad Blogger incurred. The inventory so far is--

• She shot my Murdered Darling Monday series in the foot. (The doctors say with some rest and physical therapy, the Murdered Darling Monday series should be walking, and even running again soon.)


• She hid my contest plans and let the prize packs go dusty. (Whole prize packs I have, six books strong, just wasting away on my desk. Can you believe the gall?)


• She scattered my list of new debut authors for interviews. (Unforgivable.)


• She swapped up my posting schedule. (Not sure I can salvage this one. May have to start from scratch.)


• She forgot to water my plants.

Okay. All silliness aside, I really have been a bad blogger lately. That's due to a bunch of things--like  finals, incessant traveling, bad rounds of the flu, and client projects, amongst other yucky stuff. But now most of that's over. And while it was happening, I did a lot of thinking about what I want for this blog and where I'm going as a writer, and how they're connected.

I'm at the point where I think this blog isn't doing enough. It has always been focused on writing, and I'll always need a place to talk about writing, but nowadays I also need a place to talk about all the other cool things I'm doing--like web design, art, multimedia design, etc. I've wanted a more professional venue in which to start posting my smaller published pieces (didn't know I had those, did you? My point exactly)

A vision is starting to come together, but I haven't really had the time to pursue shaping it anything tangible.* So I've been in a bit of a limbo.

I've finally come to the conclusion that yes, I'm going to change things dramatically, yes it will be soon, and yes, it will involve phasing *Headdesk* out in favor of a new, more personalized blog. That's about all I can announce at the moment, however. What it means for right now is that posting will remain sporadic (argh, sorry!) while I work on the new blog. It also means that I hope to make it up to you guys by coming up with something much, much cooler than *Headdesk* has been able to be.

So that's that. In other news, I plan on doing a lot of writing and editing in upcoming months. I've been terribly frustrated with my spotty writing habits this past semester. I intend to use the summer to work on setting up schedules and focusing on creative projects, most important of which is writing. So expect to hear me talking soon about MIRRORPASS editing deadlines, as well as lots of drafting for SHUTTERBUG.

I know all the announcements make this stuff sound blah, but guys, I am really excited about it. Like I get a bit starry eyed when I think about these pieces coming together. I can't wait to see how it goes, can't wait to share it with y'all, and I hope you'll stick around through the confusing bits until the sorting out happens.

I guess the only other bit of business is--how are you all doing? How are your WIP's going? Summer seems like the season for conferences and new novels and such. Share.

Truly and always,
-Creative A


*But I have been very inspired by Maggie Stiefvater, Laini Taylor, and a fellow writer/web designer/blogger, Sophistikate. The ideas are coalescing, people. If you have an example of a super creative blog that combines multiple forms of media and writing, please comment with a link! I'm gathering all the inspiration that I can.

10 Questions With Joelle Anthony

Hey Joelle! Tell us a little about yourself as a writer—night owl, or morning bird? Does your writing have a set process, or does it evolve from book to book?

I’m more of a morning person, but not too early. I like to ease into my day, waking up around seven or eight, drinking tea (delivered by my wonderful husband) in bed while I write in my journal, eating breakfast…. Then, after I’ve procrastinated for a while, I go out to my cabin and put on some music and dance around to loosen my body up and free my mind. This is not something anyone ever needs to see! After that, I finally block the internet and get to work, writing at my treadmill desk. I generally walk about two miles per hour while I write. It takes me about four hours to do two hours of work though because I have to take lots of breaks for more food and general goofing around! Blocking the internet does help me stay focused though.

What was your process writing The Right & The Real? What did you have trouble with, and what inspired you?

I actually wrote R&R so long ago, I don’t remember my process! I think I did the first draft in 2009. It was completely edited and finished by February of 2011, so you’re asking a lot of me to stretch my memory back that far. Haha. I do remember that when writing Restoring Harmony, I had a tendency to make everything too easy on Molly, so I tried really, really hard to make things difficult for Jamie in The Right & the Real. My editor actually had to tell me several times that she didn’t like some of the other characters because they were so mean! I had to humanize the ones who were hurting Jamie so the reader could see why they did the things they did, and not think they were pure evil and mean spirited. I mean, I wasn’t writing Voldemort here! That was a challenge, especially with Jamie’s boyfriend, Josh.

The premise of The Right & The Real struck me as being deeply controversial, but at the same time, something everyone could probably relate to—whether they were on the religious side, or the pessimistic side. What drew you to explore those themes? (Did personal experience have anything to do with it?)

I never set out to debate any church or religion, and I intentionally made The Right & the Real church cult-like so no one would think I was picking on a particular group of people. It’s true that the members consider themselves Christians, but I think most Christians would have a hard time identifying with them. The thing I discovered as I researched cults was that it’s not about religion, it’s all about power, but people who are searching for happiness or the meaning of life are often easily sucked in by extreme religions, and cults are born.

I don’t have any personal experiences with it, but I am drawn to stories that put characters in unusual circumstances. With The R&R, I wondered how might a normal, middle class girl end up homeless and the story grew from there.

Ooh, way to nail it on the head. I would have to agree with you on both points--I'm a Christian, and even from reading the blurb, I can definitely say that's not how the genuine Christian church works.

Your debut novel, Restoring Harmony, came out two years ago—yay—which makes The Right & The Real your second published novel—double yay! I’m going to bet you know a bit more about the publishing industry now than when you were starting out. So what surprised you, and what do you wish you’d known sooner?

I think the biggest shock to debut authors is that having a book out changes everything and changes nothing at the same time. Unless you have a “big” book, with a huge publicity budget, you and your family are probably the most excited people out there regarding your book. I don’t mean that this is a bad thing, I just think that no matter how much you read authors saying this, you never quite believe it until you experience it. Authors roll their eyes at people who say, “You should get on Stephen Colbert,” but honestly, we’re all waiting for the call, even if it’s on a very deeply hidden level, and when it doesn’t come, it can be a bit of a downer.

The thing to remember about publishing is that you have to just keep plugging along. Having a book out is a beautiful thing, and I don’t want to diminish it in any way, but it’s not a career. It can be the first step toward a career, but if you mistake it for “making it,” you’ll probably be disappointed.

So…I just carried on and now I have two books out! Yay. Or as you said, Double Yay!

Great answer. Given all that, what did it take to get The Right & The Real on bookshelves?

My editor really loved the book from the first fifty pages, so I guess I would say it was her enthusiasm. And my agent’s. I did the work, but you can write and write and write, and if you don’t have an excellent team like that in your corner, it can be really difficult to succeed. So while I’ll take credit for doing my part, it would not be on the shelf without them.

Tell us something about your book that we wouldn’t know just by reading the blurb, hearing the hype, or looking at the cover.

You wouldn’t know that one of my favourite lines I stole directly from my father. When my husband and I were first together we went to a barbecue at my parents’ house and after we’d eaten, he and I went to serve up the dessert – ice cream. My husband is the kind of dessert eater that just likes a couple of bites to finish off his meal, not a big old slab of cake or a bucket of ice cream, and when he dished up my dad’s tiny scoop, I looked at it doubtfully, because my dad really loves ice cream, but I didn’t say anything. My husband handed the bowl to him, and Dad looked at it and said…

Oh, wait! I can’t tell you, it will spoil the book! But the character of LaVon does use a version of it when Jamie asks him if he wants whipped cream on his hot chocolate.

That cracked me up. Reminds me of my own family, and now, I must admit, terribly curious to know what your dad said!

Today’s writing culture has a pretty big obsession with rules. What’s your stand on this? Are there any particular rules you write by?

Oh, I’m a big rule follower by nature, which makes me fit in very well here in Canada. In Tennessee, where my husband is from, he says, “Darlin’, rules are just guidelines.” He also says that about the law! As for rules about writing? I don’t have a lot, but I try not to use adverbs. And I try to remove the word “that” whenever I have it and don’t really need it. And I really try hard not to use the same word twice in a paragraph, or even on a page. If it’s an unusual word, I might only use it once in the entire book.

An example might be that I would never say: Being a senior is the saddest part of high school because your senior year is all about endings. I would change it to: Being a senior is the saddest part of high school because twelfth grade is all about endings.

Actually, I would never use either of those lame sentences, but you get the idea. After I’ve written a book, I comb it carefully for things like this and it drives me crazy when the ARC comes and I see I’ve missed some!

If you knew you a teenager who aspired to be a novelist, what would you say to them?

I actually know quite a few teens who aspire to be writers because I am the writer in residence at our local school. I always tell them to keep practicing and to read a lot. But the most important thing I try to stress is to never apologize for your writing. It’s true that you’ll write some stuff that might not be that great, and next year, it might even embarrass you. But if it does, that’s because you’ve learned something! It took me seventeen years to sell my first book (I have about seven or eight finished, unpublishable manuscripts I wrote before Restoring Harmony), so just keep writing and try not to be too hard on yourself. Everything you write will teach you something, even if no one ever reads it.

I love hearing stories like that--it's proof that all this time spent developing my craft isn't a waste. That's it's a process. So what was yours? How have you grown as a writer, and how do you hope to see yourself grow in the future?

I think I’m having more fun. Before RH came out, I had a certain amount of desperation to get published, which caused me to rush things. Now I go slower. And I savour the writing. I try not to hurry, and I’m easier on myself. I take weekends off and if I try writing and it’s just not a good day, I cut my losses and do something else. There are times you have to push yourself (deadlines come to mind!), but there are also times you have to ease up, and I was never good at that before. Now I’m better.

What’s next for Joelle Anthony?

I’m working on what I hope will be my third book right now. It’s still untitled and I don’t have anything to share yet, but I’m close to finishing a first draft. Last year, my best friend died suddenly, and so it was not a good year for writing. This year is a good one. That’s what I mean about being easy on myself sometimes. I’ve learned that ebb and flow is natural and you can’t fight it.

I’ve also got my writing cabin now, which is so exciting and such a luxury that sometimes, I find myself standing in it and just laughing at how lucky I am to have such a great place to write.

Can I just say, that sounds amazing? And thank you much for sharing all this. It's been great having you here a second time and seeing how things are developing for you.

Thank you so much for having me on your blog!

Book Trailer Reveal--The Right & The Real

Okay guys. About two years ago I interviewed debut author Joelle Anthony about her first book, Restoring Harmony. So I was really excited when, a few months ago, she contacted me about her new book, The Right & The Real which is launching in just a few days. But today also happens to be Joelle's 44th birthday, and she's asked a bunch of us bloggers to help her celebrate by releasing her book trailer for the first time. So here it is!

It sounds like a really original take on the whole coming of age story, but I'll let your read more about it yourself:

Kicked out for refusing to join a cult, 17-year-old Jamie must find a way to survive on her own.

Jamie should have known something was off about the church of the Right and the Real from the start, especially when the Teacher claimed he wasn’t just an ordinary spiritual leader, but Jesus Christ, himself. But she was too taken by Josh, the eldest son of one of the church’s disciples, and his all-American good looks. Josh is the most popular boy at school too, and the first boy outside the drama geeks to give Jamie a second look. But getting her Dad involved in a cult was not part of the plan when she started dating Josh. Neither was her dad’s marriage to the fanatic Mira, or getting kicked out, or seeing Josh in secret because the church has deemed her persona non grata.

Jamie’s life has completely fallen apart. Finding her way back won’t be easy, but when her Dad gets himself into serious trouble, will Jamie be ready to rescue him, and maybe even forgive him?

--Goodreads blurb

Happy birthday Joelle! Glad I could participate. And guys, you want to know what is possibly the coolest part? On April 20th when The Right & Real launches, I'll be posting a new interview with Joelle about it. So enjoy the book trailer, feel free to comment, and don't forget to check back on the 20th.

Happy Wednesday!

Truly and always,
-Creative A

Your Story, and the Truest Way to Tell it

For about six months as a teenager I worked as a journalist. It was rather an unhappy experience. Let me clarify: I hated it. Before I could scrabble together enough courage to quit, the newspaper folded. (Not my fault. Economic problems. You know.) So that was the end of my career as a journalist, and I was grateful.

But I did learn one thing that I’ve never forgotten—the concept of “slant.” The whole thing about journalism is, you’re dealing with facts. And those are the same facts everyone else deals with. The only way to make your story fresh is to come at it from a different angle; perhaps a more original look at the events, a truer approach to the story. It’s your slant.

Now, in fiction, it’s a bit different. Our starting point isn’t a set of facts, but a set of ideas, connected somehow into a premise. No two writers start off with the same premise (and if they do, we say it’s “been done” before.) Rather than add our slant to an event, we invent a new way of exploring some universal theme or drama. We try to reinvent it, if we can.

Every once in a while, someone comes up with something revolutionary. Think Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or yes, Twilight. By now there are dozens of new explorations on those same ideas, but they were very unique when they first came out.

So when it comes to fiction, the idea of “slant” isn’t used to compare us to other writers and stories. Instead, slant is a lot more personal. Slant is how we approach whatever specific story we’re trying to tell.

Some novels seem to know exactly what kind of story they are. Others start out looking like, say, a coming of age story, but then that doesn’t seem to work right; and we wonder if maybe it’s a story about family instead. So we scrap all our previous work and start over, with this new slant. And then we realize, no, it’s not about family so much as personal values. And maybe…how personal values can conflict with societal values. Aha.

The thing is, your original concept—your core idea, your premise, your “facts”—don’t change much in this process. It’s your approach on the idea that changes. Your slant. Your vision, developing.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference
-- Robert Frost

Go back to that “aha” moment when you finally discovered the right slant on a story. Why does it feel like all the other directions were “wrong,” and this one is “right”? Why is it that we’re often dissatisfied with a perfectly good plot—a plot that some other author would have loved? How come when friends suggest fixes to our story problems, we get so irritated, and end up saying, “you just don’t get it”?

What is it they aren’t getting?

Fiction is fiction. From start to finish, we’re making it up. But there’s still a sense of truth in it—writing is a way to interpret what’s real, to mirror it and explore it through these made up stories. So we need to represent them accurately. Truthfully. As writers, we struggle to find meaning in life, and we do it by writing stories that play out this bigger meaning.

So sure, it’s fiction—but it’s truth.

Which is why one particular slant can feel wrong. We have a vision for a story, and if our approach at it doesn’t match that vision, we go back and try to start over. We have to tell this story. And we’re trying to find the truest way, the most honest, accurate, and profound way, in which to tell it.

I’ve been doing a lot of agent research lately, and one thing I keep hearing authors say over and over again is, “they got my vision.” The agent got their vision. I’m like, “what vision?” So it got me thinking about the vision I have for my stories and where I’d like them to go. Particularly, it has me thinking about what I’d like to do if I ever wrote a sequel to MIRRORPASS—(or, um, if I got an agent, sold MIRRORPASS, and by some stroke of awesomeness landed a contract for a MIRRORPASS sequel)—because I have a very specific sense of what MP2 would need to do.

See, the ending to MIRRORPASS makes a lot of promises. MP2 would need to explore those promises. And I’ve been thinking about it ever since I finished the first draft if MIRRORPASS. I couldn’t help it—the writer in me wanted to know, what next?

And I realized this. It could very easily be a book about recovery; a book about politics; a book about culture; a book about trauma and fallout. I don’t want it to be any of those things. Those are boring, depressing things. I’d want it to be a fierce, hopeful book—one about homecoming, in all its aching and passion and happiness. I’d want it to be a book that calls to the inner warrior of my characters and challenges them to arise.

That’s my vision.

What's yours?

Think about the novel you’re working on right now. What’s your vision for it? I’d love to hear what WIP’s you guys are focused on right now, so feel free to share as much detail as you’re comfortable with. And what do you think about this "truest way to tell a story" concept?


Truly and always,
-Creative A

Feed the (Metaphorical) Bears

Also known as, the Consequences of Waiting

Dearest bloggers, writers, friends. I'm struggling with a problem so strange that the only recourse seems to be blogging about it. Except I'm having trouble doing even that. I'm too impatient. Because, dear friends, my problem is that nowadays, when I have a creative idea--new website to design, new novel to write, new scene, new art, new anything--it comes to me fully formed. Plop! Like that. One adult idea, standing there looking at me and going, "Well?"

You may think this is not such a bad problem to have.

I have to agree. It could be a lot worse. I could have ideas that refuse to form, or I could have no ideas at all. This certainly isn't the worse thing that's ever happened to me.

But it still kind of sucks. Right now, my brain is like a small company that's getting more demand than they can handle; everyone is on the scramble all day, every day, and they're hiring and hiring, but they simply can't keep up.

Or, could you imagine a young couple that decides, hey, let's have a baby, and POOF! She's in labor. There isn't even time to get to the hospital. She's having the baby, and she's having it now.

This is what my writing life has been like. And heck, my life in general. I tend to be a slow writer, in the sense that I brainstorm a lot, let ideas gestate, tumble, grow. I explore them and prod them into different poses. And I like this part of my process. It allows me to manage my time, balance projects. I know that if I start brainstorming a novel idea on Thursday, that by Saturday, I'll be ready to write, and I'll be able to write all weekend. Then the well will dry up: I'll go through my week, get all my tasks done; start brainstorming again next Thursday.

That was my process.

Not anymore. Now, if I brainstorm on Thursday, thirty chapters plop into my lap, fully formed; I have to make a dash for my computer and write and write and write, but there's no way I'm getting it all down in time. Even at my fastest, 1,500 words an hour, it would still take me days of endless writing to get that all down.

And I don't have that much time. Everything is moving too fast. The next chapters are already plopping out, boom boom boom, and I happen to have class the next day. Also I have two part time jobs. Also I have school projects that need work. And then, horrendously, torturously, when I manage to wrench myself away from writing and turn to school projects, they have the audacity to begin popping out fully formed, too. There's no respite.

Doesn't it sound awful?

Agonizing, in the best possible way?

I really don't know what to do with myself. I'm seriously starting to wonder if I could scrape aside a few days and just pound out one of those novel ideas, get it all down on paper, so the darn thing would give me a break.

I guess my problem is not that I have too many ideas, or that they're forming too quickly; it's that I'm physically incapable of creating them as quickly as I need to.

One of the worst parts is, I know why this is happening. I have been working on MIRRORPASS for years. Years, I tell you. Years on one novel. Ideas have come and gone, come and stuck, come and niggled, but I kept plugging away at MIRRORPASS, shelving those ideas for later. They're plopping out "fully formed" because they already went through their gestation period--growing rather than incubating. And now they're coming out. Having my hard drive crash for a week was a bit of a tipping point, I think; being unable to work on MIRRORPASS, all the other ideas came torrenting to the foreground, shrieking, "Me, write me!"

they're terribly needy, novels.

And it's good thing. Okay? I'm really not complaining, I'm just stymied. But to all you people slugging through edits right now, let this be a warning to you: write something new. For goodness sakes, don't keep putting it off. That sign in your mind, the one that reads, "DON'T FEED THE BEARS"? That sign is plain wrong.

Try to avoid diving headfirst into a new novel, if you can, but you can likely keep it at bay with a few hours of attention here and there. Pass it a few animal crackers. Go feed the bears. In the case of creativity, they'll be much more patient if they're gaurenteed a cracker every now and then. Plus it keeps your writing muscles nicely toned for when you finish edits and prepare to start drafting again.

Please forgive my insane rambling. This was going to be a much more coherent post, but I discovered I was in too much of a hurry to write even that, so it devolved into the stream-of-consciousness beasty you see here. I'm counting on the fact that every writer feels a bit insane sometimes. Feel free to commiserate. Anyone else ever been overwhelmed by creativity?


Truly and always and bursting at the seams,
-Creative A

Murdered Darling Monday #2

Murdered Darling Mondays is a Teaser-Tuesday spinoff that I'll be hosting once or twice a month. Interested in the concept behind this feature? Check out my introductory post.



Today's teaser is from MIRRORPASS, draft 2, chapter 2.
Cut in draft 3.



* * *

Something blipped. A lab tech looked up from the program he’d been running, and scanned the computer banks that lined the walls. The sound came from a radar screen. On it, a yellow arm swept over a tiny red dot, and it blipped again.

The tech crossed the room. His eyes reflected the screen’s green glow as he stood, staring hard, waiting a few beats. Then he hurried over to a mic.

“This is Observation Room 3, we have activity on the radar screen. Please respond.”

He waited. A voice came crackling back across the mic.

“Which radar screen, Observation 3? What kind of activity?”

He keyed the mic. “Don’t bite my head off, Leisha. It’s screen 23. We’ve got something about the size of a small meteor entering the thermosphere from the exosphere. It’s probably nothing, but you know I have to call it in.”

He depressed the button and glanced back. The dot was moving slowly down the screen. At some point this meteor was going to burn up, and the yellow arm would sweep around without making a peep. It irked him that he had to jump up and report every shooting star that appeared on the scanner. And Leisha was taking a long time answering. He thought about the meteor shower they’d had a month ago, wondering why it hadn’t appeared on the scanners. Maybe it didn’t pick them up after all. But if not, what was this?

He tapped the mic. “Leisha, you there? This is Observation 3. What’s taking so long?”

As he said it, he felt the air pressure shift, and the mechanical doors swished open across the room. He spun in surprise. It wasn’t Leisha. It wasn’t one of the other techs who came in and checked on calls. It was his boss.

Actually, both his bosses; and for a moment, he was worried. He didn’t see his bosses often. They disliked each other for one, Dr. Eschler the Canadian, Dr. Votti the American. They were smart and underpaid and disagreed on how to run the station. Each preferred to manipulate things from a distance, using puppet officers so that they avoided ever truly speaking to each other.

But here they were, on his watch. Had something gone wrong?

The two men made way for another man who looked vaguely familiar, the way a political candidate or newsperson is familiar. He made a beeline for the screen.

The lab tech stood. “Did you come about the radar?—”

But the newcomer cut him off, speaking over him, like he wasn’t even there. “Thank you for notifying me about this, gentlemen.”

He had an American accent. So of course, it was Votti who answered, clearing his throat and approaching the screen.

“Of course, General Clevland. As per your request, we always flag such incidences for you. It was good coincidence that you were here today.”

The tech stood frozen in place, realizing that these words were not for his ears, and that they meant something big, something beyond his understanding. General Cleveland peered at the screen as if deciding something. He stood back with a sudden resolve. “No need to transfer this incidence to NASA,” he said. “The Defense Department will handle it.”

Suddenly he looked up at the tech. The General’s face was shadowed in strange ways by the green glow of the radar; the tech couldn’t read his expression.

“You’re dismissed,” the General said.

The tech blinked. “I just started my shift.”

The man straightened. The tech did see his expression now. It was dark, eyebrows bent, eyes bitingly intelligent.

“You are dismissed.”

The tech looked at Dr. Eschler and Dr. Votti. He looked back at the screen, and the tiny dot slipping closer to the earth.

Flagging the incidences? What did the Defense Department care about meteors?

Nothing. No one cared about meteors.

He left.

* * *

What made this a darling:

First, mini rant. I have always hated how most other books and movies portray the government in first-contact scenarios, and from the beginning of writing MIRRORPASS, I wanted to to portray the government in a much more realistic light. Which, for me, meant exploring it on a human level. So MIRRORPASS has a scattering of supporting characters who reinvent that role. The tech really embodied that.

Mini rant over, I loved the tech. He had voice. This one scene I'd intended to write bubbled into two more lengthy scenes. He was my ordinary Joe working a lonely government job at NORAD, but he still managed to maintain his humor and morality. He gave readers an insight into the government, and when things get fishy, he has the courage to investigate. What I really loved was his role in the climax when--well, let's just say, Aria's failure/success effects all humanity, and we got to see the tech's reaction.

Why it got murdered:

Most of my beta readers didn't really get the tech. They disliked Leisha. The tech was yet another POV taking up wordcount, and although we learn interesting things from him, it turns out they weren't necessary things. Plus, other characters could get the necessary info across, but better. Plus, he was an adult, and MIRRORPASS is YA. Plus, keeping his role meant doing serious research into how NORAD works. Plus...

I hung onto him for quite a while. But in the end, the wordcount issue won out, and the tech got cut.


MIRRORPASS is a YA SF novel currently undergoing revisions. To learn more, check out the WIP page.

Do you like the idea of Murdered Darling Mondays? Want to join me? If you decide to participate in this feature, feel free to linkback in the comments, and share the murdered darling love!

Truly and always,
-Creative A