Doing Your Homework

Tip of the Day: Check out Cafe Press's line of Gifts for Writers from various vendors.

I never understand when someone says they don't like to research, as in "I wrote a contemporary romance because I hate researching." Researching is so much easier than writing. Look, here's me putting my feet up reading an interesting book or article. Yup, that's worlds more relaxing than stressing out over my seventh revision of Chapter 1.

I've been reading manuscripts lately, and I've only run across one where the author dumped in too much research without tying his information to the main character. Most manuscripts, even contemporaries, suffer from too little research. For example, a main character who wants to be a golf pro should think about golf, be seen golfing, own a set of golf clubs and be able to tell them apart. If I don't see that, I don't believe that character wants to be a golf pro. I believe that the writer didn't want to read a copy of Golf magazine.

I recently read a manuscript with a jail break. It was totally believable because the author researched the jail trusty system, which I didn't know about. Now, maybe a prison guard would have found it hard to suspend disbelief, but I bought it completely. And then the next day, I read in the newspaper about a local jail break where the escapee took advantage of being a jail trustee. (And then he got caught the next week hanging out in a nearby trailer park. Why do prison escapees always "hide" where they're so easy to find?)

So contemporaries need research too, and it's actually a lot more fun than some other types of research. I have a great idea for a post-disaster WaterWorld type story, but I'd have to research sailing ships and bosuns and rigging and mizzenmasts and such. I'm not sure I can stomach that, so that story's been on the backburner for a while. I may never write it just because I don't want to know what a forecastle is. There are way more interesting things to learn about.

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

Fun Friday: Christmas Movie Celebration!

Tip of the Day: want to take a break from writing this weekend? Especially if you had a busy Nov. by participating in NaNoWriMo or another writing challenge. If so, check out one of these original Christmas Movies.

A Princess for Christmas (Hallmark Channel, premiers Sat. Dec. 3)

When Jules Daly's sister and brother-in-law are tragically killed in an accident, Jules Daly (Katie McGrath) becomes guardian to her young niece Maddie and nephew Milo. On top of balancing the daily hysteria of becoming an overnight parent, Jules was recently laid off at work, her car is on the fritz, and the kids’ shenanigans have caused a dozen nannies to flee. When an ominous knock on the door comes late one evening, Jules wonders, what now? At the door is Paisley Winterbottom (Miles Richardson), a proper English butler, with a curious invitation: a Christmas holiday with grandfather, Edward (Roger Moore), the Duke of Castlebury Hall, who was absent from the kids' lives, but wants to reconnect out of love for his late son. Jules initially wants to decline the trip, but her eventual acceptance makes for a magical Christmas season for everyone.

Christmas Angel (Lifetime Movie Network, Dec. 4)

Out of work and permanently single in New York, Ashley (Kari Hawker) has an unsurprisingly cynical attitude to Christmas. But things perk up when her path crosses with charming journalist Will (K.C. Clyde) and her neighbour Nick (Bruce Davison) gives her a job that makes people happy. Yet while Nick would rather keep their good work a secret, ambitious Will sees it as a wonderful scoop. Cockle-warming seasonal fare.

For a list of other great holiday movies check out this blog!

--Emily, Miss Will Be Enjoying a Christmas Movie or Two this Weekend

Let's Discuss: Buying your Book Review?

Tip of the Day: Check out this list of Stocking Stuffers for Writers from author Sarah Maclean.

There's been some talk this week in the writerly hangouts about how Kirkus (remember them? The big toughie reviewer with the reputation of crucifying books?) is offering to review books by Indie Authors for a price. $400-$500 a book from what I hear. And here's the thing, the author gets to decide whether or not Kirkus includes the review in their newsletter. So if they rip you in two, don't include the review. But if it's glowing, please do include. Um, huh? I get that they're paying for it so why would they want to put out a negative review but something about it doesn't seem right to me. I've had an awful review from Kirkus that I wished they wouldn't have published but they did. And this buying of reviews-- does it make the reviewer more favorable to the book? I don't know. If someone gave me $500 would I not call it a giant stinking pile of dog poop? Maybe.

Which brings me to another type of "buying". Some publishers recently have been heard to be sending valuable gifts with their books to book reviewers. People are saying this is too a type of buying. Is it? If I have shiny new gift in my hand am I going to be totally truthful about your book and if I hate it say so? Or am I going to be so excited about shiny new gift that I'm just going to gush about your book no matter what you wrote. Hmm.

And then does it even really matter? So many things are bought now anyway. Kim Kardashian gets ten thousand dollars to tweet that she likes a new lip gloss. Who knows if she really likes it. Audrina Patridge takes home a check for holding up a tube of Colgate Total Whitening in the grocery store and giving a toothy grin. Does she really use that brand? I don't know. It is good though. I use it all the time (please send my paycheck for endorsement to...;-) ).

I think people do read reviews and make purchases off of them but is everyone evaluating where they come from? I've looked up books that have loads of 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads only to be disappointed when I started reading and the book is full of distracting grammatical errors, jumping back and forth between tenses and times and just plain old not good.

So here's some stuff to discuss. Do you think it's wrong to buy a review from Kirkus? Do you think it even matters (like, do teens even read or care about a Kirkus review?)? Publishers sending gifts to book reviewers- yay, everyone's doing it or nay, you're not going to get a true review. And how valuable do you find book reviews when making a purchase?

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

My Printzesses (or Which Book Will Be Crowned?)

Tip of the Day: Check out Lisa Schroeder's blog post on how Goodreads ads worked for her!

I love meeting with the Mock Printz Club girls to discuss books (it's open to guys, but none have joined us), and always learn so much from them, too! Right now the frontrunners fr our Mock Printz award seem to be:





Some other tidbits I've garnered from our Printz meetings:

--They love J. K. Rowling. She essentially can do no wrong. And they don't mind what I called the "info dump chapters" in book #7 because they'd rather have that than stringing the reader along with tiny clues until the "big reveal." :)

--They don't like how in practically every current YA book they read with a girl MC, the girl *always* either a) ends up crushing on/hooking up with the first boy she meets in the book, or b) ends up crushing on/hooking up with her guy friend. They say it is so unrealistic and completely unnecessary.

--They don't like MCs who are seemingly invincible. While most like THE HUNGER GAMES, many don't like how Katniss, for example, is a little too unstoppable.

--They are getting tired of "the same" dystopian stories being told over and over, and find a lot of them similar to THE GIVER.

Our last Printz meeting was supposed to last 45-60 mins, and some of the girls hung around talking to the HS Librarian and I in the HS library for 90 minutes chatting about books! I love it!

What are your Printz picks so far?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Tip of the Day: Keep yourself from letting holiday stress invade your body. Stock up on yogurt and cranberry juice. Enjoy the last great apples of the season.

So in my past novels, for various reasons, there has been a focus on the main character's relationship with his or her father. Years ago, I heard Laurie Halse Anderson speak about writing as a male character, and she recommended exploring his relationship with his father. This really strengthened my first novel. The next time I wrote from a male point of view, I also focused on Dad.

But somehow it's never gone the other way. My female main characters have had more memorable relationships with their fathers than their mothers. But that's going to change soon. For my next novel, Mom is going to be a very important player. Unfortunately, she's also going to suck.

I feel bad about that. I'd like to model a healthy mother/daughter relationship, but I think if you have a wonderful mother behind you all the way ... well, you're less likely to be in the dire straights that a novel demands.

Some authors who have done mother/daughter relationships very well in novels I have loved are Deb Caletti, E.M. Crane, Elizabeth Scott, and of course Sarah Dessen. So I have some great examples to help me.

But in the end, I think this mother is going to be a bad person. Hopefully, she'll be fun to write, in any case. What about you? When you're writing about a female main character, how much thought do you put into the mother/daughter relationship?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

Fun Friday: Black Friday

Tip of the Day: This is our 1000th post!! Wow! I feel like we should give away a car or something. But that's not happening. :-)

HAPPY BLACK FRIDAY! Are you full of turkey and dressing? Are you sitting outside of Best Buy at 3am? Tell the truth-- to Black Friday or not to Black Friday? Me? I'm a not. I don't like fighting. If you went out, what hot deal did you get?

Thanksgiving Deadline!

First, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope you all have a wonderful day with your family and friends! I'm excited to spend the day with my family and I'm also excited that I met my Thanksgiving deadline! Whoo hoo! I've been revising The Paparazzi Project (I posted a teaser of it last week) and my deadline to get it back to my agent was Thanksgiving.

I've been working on it every free minute I've had, which usually is whenever my littlest is in preschool, and evenings. And last night I was determined to not miss my deadline and get it done. The only problem? All four kids are sick (UGH! This is so not fun!) and now I'm sick too (sore throat and fever- boo). But still, I really wanted to get it done so that I'd have the holiday free and I was SO close so I worked through it anyway and e-mailed it to the agent at midnight. Yay!

So yeah, I'm thankful to be done (well, at least until I get notes back from my agent) and excited for a little break before I dive back into my middle grade project.

What about you guys? Did you meet your November deadlines?

Kristina, Miss Author in Action