Fun Friday

From: http://boscafelife.wordpress.com/tag/santa/

Merry Christmas! Gimme Free Stuff!

Tip of the Day: Did you know there's a Web site for funny books by funny writers for funny readers? It's fun. I wrote a post for them last week about the funniest book I've ever read. Check it out.

I don't know about you all but my credit card is seriously crying right now from all the Christmas shopping! Which makes it a perfect time to get some free stuff. Specifically download some free books for my kindle (ok, I don't have a kindle. But I have the free kindle app on my iPad and iPhone). So check out what I found this week:
From Saundra Mitchell,

Breathkept

By Saundra Mitchell
Cover Photo by Luna Vandoorne

Parker Nixon has never been away from home. She’s never been in love. And she’s never been wanted for murder… until now.

The boy Parker got caught kissing last night turned up dead this morning, and there’s no shortage of suspects. Her reclusive father leads a double life, and the people at Stone Well Ranch have their mysteries too.

But then there’s beautiful, broken Brandon Beauchamp. He saved Parker’s life once, and holds her heart in his hands. But he may be hiding the darkest secret of all.

Visit this page on Saundra's blog to download the book for free!

Next up we have Danielle Joseph.

Indigo Blues

By Danielle Joseph

Indigo:

I never asked to be famous—or infamous. Such is my fate for briefly dating (and dumping) Adam Spade. Yes, the Adam from the indie rock band Blank Stare who wrote "Indigo Blues"—the song that gave the band overnight success, propelled them to New York City, and stole my precious anonymity. Now I'm pawed by fans, stalked by reporters, and pegged as a vicious heartbreaker. And Adam is still calling me. Doesn't he have better things to do?

Adam:

With a hit single and a promising career, I should be on top of the world. People on the street are beginning to recognize me, which is cool. And scary. The band is counting on me to write another hit, but I can't stop thinking about Indigo. Why won't she answer the phone?

I believe Danielle's book is only free this month so act quick! Here's the link to it on Amazon.

And finally we have Megg Jensen.

Anathema

By Megg Jensen

Forget prophecy. Make your own destiny. 

Sheltered from the outside world with no hope for escape, slave girl Reychel dreads her fifteenth birthday - when her master’s symbol is burned on the back of her bald scalp. Her best friend disappears the night before, leaving her to face the branding ceremony alone. She soon discovers nothing is as it seems when people desperate for freedom beg for Reychel's help.

Can Reychel learn to believe in herself?

Download it free here.

Enjoy!

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Books I Have Loved (or When Real was the Deal)

Tip of the Day: Is Amazon taking over the publishing world? They've aquired the children's trade list at Marshall Cavendish. http://bit.ly/vDkYC8


I was thinking about all the books that I loved loved loved when I was a kid reading novels in the children's section of the library.

My aunt bought me this Judy Blume novel and I became hooked on everything she'd written.

Bruce Coville provided me with ghost mysteries! So did Betty Wren Wright. I remember being seriously creeped out when the dolls acted out the murder!

This series by Candace Ransom was handed down to me by a friend in fifth grade and I remember wishing the books went for longer than ages 12-15.

This pink cover of Barthe DeClements has stuck in my head over the years. Gotta love girls doing makeup!

Barbara Park, in her pre-Junie B. days, was my hero. Her books were HILARIOUS. SKINNYBONES and OPERATION: DUMP THE CHUMP are other fab reads that I still recommend to kids today when they ask for humor.

As you can see, with little exception they fell into two categories: realistic contemporary fiction, or realistic contemporary ghost stories.

I know the advent of Harry Potter in 1997 changed the bookshelves in the children's areas at libraries across the country, but in the late 1980s-early 1990s, were there many historical ghost stories/fantasies/sci-fi books for kids?

What did you love reading in the rockin' '80s?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Is there ever really an end?

Tip of the Day: Christmas lights are so fun and inspiring to look at. Even better when the neighbor does all the work, but you benefit from getting to look at them when trying to work out a pesky character flaw in Chapter 15.

Endings are hard.

No matter what type of ending it is. Maybe it's the end of a relationship. The end of living in someplace you've enjoyed. Whatever it might be, even when you are excited to move on, ending something else can be a challenge.

So it's no wonder that for me writing the ending of a novel often feels excruciating. How on earth are you supposed to be able to nicely tie up all the loose ends of the novel, show your character's growth (but not too much), and do it all by staying as realistic as possible without falling into that going too far "overboard" category?

Basically wrapping up your novel and putting a shiny red bow on it! But not too perfect of a bow that it looks like you "tried too hard."

Ughh...

Sometimes it feels so challenging that I'm tempted to start writing my endings first and then work backwards.

Usually after plowing through it and then discovering nothing is really tied up yet, you sit down and six re-writes later the thing starts to resemble much more of a decent ending to a story.

Maybe endings are hard, because in real life nothing ever feels like it's ending. At least for me.

So a better strategy might be to think of the ending of your novel as setting it up for the sequel, even if no sequel is planned.

That's what I'm currently trying to do with another re-write of the ending of the book I'm working on. Wrap up most of the book, but still leave hints that the story will continue once the pages are closed. It's making it feel a bit more authentic, and still gives the reader enough closure.

--Emily

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