Puppies and Publishers

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog...we got a new puppy. Oh, what was that? You want to see a picture? Sure, no problem. Here's Spike! Extra points if you can guess where I got the name Spike...(hint hint, it would be wrong to call a boy Buffy!)

 

 

In other news I got a foreign offer from a Turkish publisher. It's my first foreign sale so it's super exciting...I'll have more news on that later.

 

Okay, back to making sure Spike doesn't decide my shoes are the toilet, or a chew toy. :)

In Defense of Love Triangles

I am not a romance writer; the amount of romance in IN THE AFTER is very little, and the small amount that can be found is very subtle. But I have a confession…I love love triangles, especially in YA lit, which I read almost exclusively. I know some people feel very strongly (and very negatively) about them, but before you unfollow, unlike, block, and write me off completely, let me explain my affection for the much maligned YA love triangle.

 

Choices, Choices – Choice in YA lit is not a bad thing. Teens may not feel like they have a lot of say over their daily life, but most teens can decide who they date (or if their parents are strict, at least who they want to date.) Portraying teens as in charge of their own life, and as having choices when it comes to something so important, is a positive trend.  

Having a character choose between two or more love interests can also be a great plot device. It can keep the reader interested in a love subplot or rooting for one character over another…but it goes beyond plot progression. Why is heartthrob A better than heartthrob B? How do their traits differ? What makes one a better choice than the other? A character reveals a lot about themselves through the choices they make, and choosing between love interests can round out an MC. Of course, this can be done poorly. Two supermodel-esq teens fight over an MC who isn’t very interesting or dynamic. I’m not saying simply having a love triangle will make a story, but it can definitely enhance it when done right.

 

Love (Un)Interest - When you have an MC that is kick-ass, smart, hot, and interesting, who wouldn’t want to date them? If the MC were dull, they probably wouldn’t be the MC…they’d be the best friend or the tertiary character stuck in the background. When there’s an awesome MC, I think it’s completely realistic that there would be multiple guys (or girls) chasing them and perhaps these suitors are less than ideal. It would be equally realistic that they would try to avoid the attention of the shallow/jerk/meathead/overbearing character.

I personally have never had to choose between two equally wonderfully perfect guys who each pursued me with a passionate fury…but I’ve had plenty of unwanted weirdo creep attention. It’s just part of being human. Someone you wouldn’t give the time of day to will like you, while you like someone else who doesn’t know you exist. Yes, it’s harsh, but it’s also high school.

 

Crushed - The definition of a crush is: a temporary romantic attraction, especially in teenagers and young people. Though they are not always lumped in with the love triangle, crushes are a huge part of YA lit…and with that comes crushes on multiple characters. I think this is great.

Not every attraction ends in meeting your soul mate and results in a lifelong relationship. It's normal for teens to crush on someone one week and lose interest the next, that's why it's called a crush and not love eternal. It's also normal for teens to have multiple crushes at once. My high school guy friends always had at least three or four girls they were interested in at any given time. That many crushes in a novel may be unwieldy, so I can see why some stories stick to the two crush scenario, which gets them put squarely into the love triangle category. (Ha! Squarely into the triangle...never mind.)

And yes, sometimes along the course of a novel a crush develops into love and can result in breaking an MC’s heart (See love (un)interests above) but that’s just another part of growing up. And when the crush character doesn’t break the MC's heart? The progression from crush to relationship can really drive a story. And let’s be honest, an MC’s early crush on the "wrong" character also makes it all the more satisfying if they do wind up with the "right" character at the end.

 

That’s my take on love triangles. I love any YA lit that realistically portrays teen emotions and all the depth (and sometimes the shallowness) that comes along with finding yourself and growing into adulthood.

What's your take on the love triangle in YA lit? Love them? Hate them? Feel free to rant…I love a good rant!
 

Happy Birthday to Me!

Hi all!

My birthday is coming up so I’m going to take a short blog break. You’ll still be able to find me on twitter @demitrialunetta, so you won’t miss me too much J

I’ll be back next Monday, March 4^th with a new IN THE AFTER giveaway followed by an ARC Spotlight of RUSH by Eve Silver on Wednesday March 6^th.

See you next week!

 

E-reader Advice

So I’m finally going to get an e-reader!

 

But there are a lot of choices and I’d love some advice.

Which ones do you have? What do you love about them, hate about them? I’m leaning toward the Kindle…but am open to any suggestions.

Also…there’s still time to enter my giveaway so you can win an ARC of In the After. Just click on the giveaway tab!

October = Zombie Love

The Walking Dead was back on Sunday with an awesome new episode…and I also got the 8^th installment in the Walking Dead comic book series.

 

October is a great month for zombies, and I recently watched a few movies that I’d never seen before. Each of these is a unique take on the genre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fido –Timmy is delighted with the family's first zombie, whom he names Fido. Fido becomes Timmy's best friend, and runs afoul of prejudice, circumstance, hardware faults in the Zomcon collars, and neighborhood bullies.

 

 

 

Undead – A quaint Australian fishing village is overcome by meteorites that turn its residents into the ravenous undead, leaving a small group of those unharmed to find a way out.

 

Survival of the Dead – On an island off the coast of North America, local residents simultaneously fight a zombie epidemic while hoping for a cure to return their un-dead relatives back to their human state.

 

 

 

 

 

Has anyone seen any of these? What did you think…or do you have a favorite that you want to recommend?

 

 

Bats on the Brain

If you’re my facebook friend or are a fan of my author page, then you know I occasionally post batman-related photos and news. I’ve always been obsessed with the Dark Knight, and I actually made my entire bridal party go see The Dark Knight Rises as part of my wedding rehearsal. Here are a few photos I’ve recently shared that I think are fun.

 

 

Anyone else out there love Batman? Well, back off he’s mine! Just kidding. Any other superhero love?

 

See you Monday!

Back From the Fringe

Hi everyone. I just got back from the Fringe Festival in Scotland...thanks for not robbing my house while I was gone :) Edinburgh is an awesome city, really inspiring. I love going there.

What cities/places inspire you?

Since Monday is a holiday I'll be back the week after with another (longer, I promise) post.

When Do You Give Up On a Book?

Over the weekend I gave up on a book. Usually I hang on to the bitter end, but it was just so boooooooooooooring. I got a quarter of the way through and still nothing had happened. This is one of the first books I’ve given up on in a long time.

Here’s why I usually don’t give up:

1)      Out of hope. Some books redeem themselves.

2)      Out of stubbornness. I’m not going to let a book beat me.

3)      Out of respect. Someone poured their soul into their work, and an entire team of publishing professionals deemed it worthy. Even if I don’t like it personally, I try to figure out its merits.

So, what about you guys? Do you give up on books easily or stick it out?

My New Author Photo

I am extremely camera shy…I don’t like to be in photos, even as background to random tourists in Chicago snapping away. I knew I needed an author pic, but I always thought, “I’ll just wait until I get an agent,” then it was, “I’ll just wait until I get a book deal,” and with that final event come and gone, I couldn’t put it off any longer. I wanted to, but my editor needed a photo for the catalogue.

So, this is what I look like J Please be kind. And thanks to my fantastic friend Lucky for taking the photo.

What about you guys, do you already have your author photo or are you like me and putting it off until the last possible moment?

SCBWI Grant Time

I just sent off my application for the SCBWI WIP grant. I’m using my current book, In the After, even though it may have a contract before the grant is awarded (fingers crossed). The great thing about this grant is that it only has to be un-contracted through March 15^th, after that, all bets are off. You can apply if you have other books published or if you’re a complete newbie. If you haven’t already, check it out. You do have to be member, but if you want to write YA, a SCBWI membership is a useful tool to have.

Other than that, I’m still going through my line edit. It’s actually pretty tedious. It’s more track changes fault than anything else. Here’s what I’ve been doing for the past hour:

Left click. Highlight Accept Deletion. Right click. Left click. Highlight Accept Insertion. Right click.

Repeat several hundred times.

The thing is that you have to approve every insertion or deletion, so if you want to delete a comma and insert a semicolon, you have to approve both. If my agent makes a word choice suggestion I have to either accept or reject it and reject any of her comments so they do not become imbedded in my manuscript. Like I said, tedious. Whoowee. I’d better get back to it.

I’m Awesome at Procrastination

This weekend I failed to work on my line edit at all and instead did these many, non-writing related things.

1)      Played a couple hours of Super Mario Galaxy 2. So very addictive.

2)      Watched episodes of Dollhouse on Netflix streaming. Why didn’t anyone ever tell me how good this show was? I think it’s cancelled now. BTW I’m going to marry Tahmoh Penikett. Should probably figure out how to pronounce his name first…J

3)      Read three books: Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein, Brains: A Zombie Memoir by Robin Becker, and Unwind by Neal Shusterman

4)      Attended a B-day party for a co-worker’s daughter. There was a whole table devoted to candy. How cool is that?

5)      Tried to reach 200 followers on my blog. Mission accomplished.

6)      Walked to Sweet Mandy B’s in search of more cupcakes. Best in Chicago. For sure check it out if you’re here.

7)      Watched Last of the Mohicans for the 100^th time. Best. Movie. Ever.

8)      Generally hung out, chilled out, and slacked off.

My rationalization is that my brain needed a few days off to come back and make my manuscript as good as it can be. Makes sense, right?

What are your preferred procrastination methods?

To Correct or Not to Correct

That sure is the question. The other day I was having a work related phone conversation and the woman was giving me her email.

She said, “Blah blah blah ampersand blah dot com.”

Hold up. I’ve never heard of & being in an email address.

“Ampersand?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “You know…the little a in the swirl thing.”

Whoa. This is the moment of truth. Do I tell her that the @ symbol is not an ampersand?

So what did I do? I just said. “Oh, okay.” And let it go.

In retrospect, should I have said something? She probably gives out her email a thousand time a day and either is wrongly informing people that this @ is an ampersand or has a bunch of people think she’s an idiot. I’m one of those people who appreciates (to a certain extend) being corrected when I misuse or mispronounce a word, but I know to the general populace this is seen as obnoxious.

What would you have done?

Beg, Borrow, or Buy?

I went to a talk recently about publishing trends and at one point the speaker said, “People either buy books, or get them from the library. They don’t do both.”

Umm…I do both. If I didn’t get books from the library I wouldn’t be able to buy enough books to support my habit. I’d have to go to bookaholics anonymous. I do buy books as well, though. Sometimes these are books that I’ve already read and know that I’ll want to reread in the future, but sometimes they’re ones with so much hype that I can’t resist. (The Uglies Series, The Hunger Games, Across the Universe etc.)

I feel like there’s also a third group of people, the ones who beg books off of their friends and families, only to sometimes return them. Oh, you know who you are.

So what about you? Do you Beg, Borrow, or Buy? Or maybe you get your books in a completely different way that doesn’t fall into the categories of my snazzy title.

Places I Know

I was watching a movie partially set in Edinburgh (no, it wasn’t Trainspotting) and I realized I could name all the streets the actors were walking on and had been in a fair amount of the buildings. I know that city so well, not only because I lived there, but because I loved living there. It got me thinking about place when writing.

My YA novel, In the After, takes place in an unnamed city that greatly resembles Chicago. Some of the street names are the same, as well as a park near my house. Although it is meant to be an “every city,” I think basing it on the city in which I lived helped me visualize the action a bit better.

What are some of the places you know? Places that are a part of you. Here are mine; they’re all cities, but yours don’t have to be.

Miami (where I grew up)

Edinburgh (where I love to be)

Chicago (where I’ve made my home)

What about you? How do you all utilize place in your writing?

100 Followers – Woohoo!

I know I shouldn’t be so excited over an arbitrary number, but I am. It’s always nice to get new followers…I love when my number goes up by even just one. I think part of it is the validation of ego that we all crave, but the main part is happiness in being able to share with so many awesome people.

It’s really interesting how quickly I became obsessed with blogging. I’ve learned that you get out of blogging what you put in. I heard that following gets you followed. Although I always try to follow back my followers (if I’m not let me know), I’ve found that comments get you followed. I try to comment as much as I can, and I appreciate all of you who take the time to comment on what I have to say. It means so much to me.

And of course, thank you!

Hello 2011!

Happy 2011 everyone.

A lot of people are talking about resolutions and goals for this year. My goal last year was to finish my novel and get an agent. This year my goal is to get published! What about you all? What are your writing goals?

I know I was supposed to write about self-editing last week, but then life happened and I got sidetracked. Tomorrow I’ll do a post about self-editing, and then it’s more editing for the rest of the week!

Books Make the Best Presents

Here are some of the Books I got for Christmas!

Zombies vs. Unicorns – Holly Black

I already know I’m a zombie girl.

The Ring of Solomon – Jonathan Stroud

I’m super psyched to read this fourth book in the Bartemaeis Series.

The Lazarus Project – Aleksandar Hemon

My boyfriend got this for me because it was the only “grown-up” book on my Amazon wishlist…he can be such a snob! J

What books did you all get?

One Month Blog-iversary

Hi everyone. I’ve been blogging for exactly one month. I started when I decided on an agent and thought, “I should start a blog to promote my writing.” I’ve learned a ton in the past month and made great contacts with other writers, all in various stages of their careers.

What I didn’t expect was how addictive blogging is. Not just writing one, but reading what other people have to say and commenting. I follow a gazillion blogs now, mostly YA related, although I do follow other random people who are just really interesting.

As a new blogger, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for making my blogging experience so great…and eventually I’ll be an old blogger.

So I’m off to edit my manuscript now for submission…I won’t be back until Monday, but that’s what I’ll be talking about next week. Edit. Edit. Edit. See you next week.

First Blog Post Ever!

This is the very first post in a blog about writing and trying to "make it" in the publishing world. I have just gone through the query process and landed an agent, which I will talk about later. I'll also be writing about any great books that I've read and the random events of my life. Let the blogging begin!