How Hard Can They Make It to Find a Scary Story?

Tip of the Day: Today is the last day to sign up for Rhonda Stapleton Helms's Plotting Workshop. It starts tomorrow. I'm signed up!

Yesterday, I was really in the mood to read a scary novel. I own a Nook reading device. In general, I'm very happy with it. It's great for travelling, it's backlit so I can read while my husband sleeps, and I love the instant gratification thing. Sort of. Because what I don't like about the Nook is the Nook store, which frankly sucks.

I searched Horror*General and Ghost Fiction, both Nook store categories. But all I could find were 99 cent self-published short stories. I didn't want a short story; I wanted a novel. There were no Halloween recommendations on the store and no way to sort by short story vs. novel. The search options are "best matches," which as far as I can tell has absolutely no meaning whatsover; "best sellers," which are all the free downloads of public domain or self-published short stories; and "price." Aha, I thought, I'll sort by price and get to novels that way. Nope. It gives you the lowest price first. After scrolling through 20 pages of short stories, I gave up.

Fortunately the Nook has a web browser. I searched "best scary novels" on Google. Google Books, by the way, is in its unique way as horrible as the Nook Store. You can't search genres of fiction from the Google Books store. Does this make sense to ANYONE? Goodreads and CNN had scary novel recommendations, but they were all books I had already read. (I love scary stories.)

Now, to B&N's credit, they have a Nook blog that is not half bad. Although it's not exactly easy to get to from the Nook store. The blog recommended a list of Halloween novels and pimped them at $2.99 each. I loved that I could download the first chapter for free as a sample. I tried two out, but they were VERY male-centric. In one, I loved the writing, but the only female characters were hookers with hearts of gold. The other belonged to the "gorgeous woman falls in love with fat, nerdy protagonist for no particular reason" genre. I can't remember what that genre is called, but I'm pretty sure it is a genre of its own now.

Finally, I found some recommendations on a message board for horror fans and downloaded THE HOUSE by Bentley Little. It's incredibly creepy and awesome. Teen librarians and teachers, do NOT recommend this one to younger teens. The disturbing images are beyond R-rated; nothing gory, just all out disturbing. So it's awesome and I stayed up too late reading it.

But instant gratification? I could have driven to the bookstore twice and bought a coffee in the time it took me to find this novel. Seriously, B&N Nook Store, you need more customer involvement and WAY better search options.

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

Fun Friday

What's Your Writing Schedule?

Tip of the Day: Today's my birthday!! Want to get me something? :-) If you've read any of my three books (The Espressologist, My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours, or Just Your Average Princess), could you go review them at Goodreads and/or Amazon?

I'm always curious about the writing schedule of your average author. Maybe it's because I feel like I never have enough time to write. I look forward to two years from now when all of my kids are in school all day I'll have that time to work. But for now my typical schedule is two hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays (when the little guy is in preschool) and then the occasional hour at night or on a weekend that doesn't happen often enough. It's not a whole lot of time. I wondered what other other author's writing schedules looked like.

Aprilynne Pike says she writes from 10am-4pm during the summer months.

Tammi Sauer writes from 9:30am-3pm on school days.

Gena Showalter writes a chapter everyday, 7 days a week. Even if it takes her all day to write it.

Kerri Maniscalco writes 8-14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. (Wow!)

What's your writing schedule like?

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

My Job is Awarding (or The Printz is Coming!)

Tip of the Day: I just finished watching all of Martha Alderson's Plot Whisperer Tips on YouTube while taking notes. Wow. I know this will help me as I go through my ms one last time in November. Have you watched all 27 parts yet?

Some awesome teens at my local high school are doing a Mock Printz Club and invited me to sit in. I love hearing their thoughts on different titles! Here's their short list. I agree with many of them and have read 8 out of 11. Three of these are my faves of the year (along with RIVAL by Sara Bennett Wealer), and one was a fave of last year (I read the ARC) so I was thrilled to see them on the high schoolers' list!

The teens vote on their faves in January. Which have you read and loved?























Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Dress up time!

Tip of the Day: get your candy ready!

Check out these great writing/literary-related Halloween costume possibilities...

Can you guess who they are?

Creepy Things

Tip of the Day: Tina's on virtual tour with JUST YOUR AVERAGE PRINCESS. Here's the Teen Book Scene schedule to see where she is today and where's she's been.

Today I took my son to the bus stop and nobody was there. Usually there are four boys at his stop. The absence of other boys crunching through the dead leaves was eerie. It would have been like time stood still, except then black clouds moved in from the west, eclipsing the sunlight. If it hadn't been our regular bus driver who pulled up with her usually cheery smile, I would have been afraid to let him on the bus!

It was a reminder that everyday events have the potential to suddenly be creepy. Remember that feeling of walking or bike riding home from a friend's house this time of year? And it's darker that you expected. When did the days get so short? And suddenly you feel like you're being watched. You hear footfalls and rustles, but when you look behind you at the deserted street, all you see is your shadow stretched out from the streetlights and you decide to get home REALLY FAST.

We can create this creepy atmosphere with the five senses: shadows, leaves rustling, growling noises, birds screeching, chills, cold wind, pounding hearts. (Yes, even smell. If you've ever been terrified of the sudden smell of gas or burning, you know what I mean.) But what about other senses, like the sixth sense? That little voice that says, something's wrong here. The feeling of being watched. The activation of some sort of caveman instinct that kicks in our "fight or flight" responses. The things that make you pull into a supermarket parking lot and suddenly decide today is a very bad day for shopping and you don't park your car after all. You go home with the feeling you just had a close call but you'll never know from what.

Scary things don't have to happen in a graveyard. There could be someone right behind you now. Do you see a reflection of something in your monitor?

-- Kate, Miss Getting Ready for Halloween

Fun Friday