Book Boyfriends

book boyfriend /[book boi-frend] (noun): Male protagonist, often in a YA novel, and often inappropriately young to dream about in compromising situations, which a reader pretends to be dating in her head.

It’s a real thing. Look it up.

Some examples from my recent reading list include Prince Kai from Cinder by Marissa Meyer, Four from Divergent by Veronica Roth, and Peeta from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. But my best book boyfriend (and I’m not ashamed to say it) was Edward Cullen. Our bond was strong, and though time has gotten between us, I still have a little place in my heart for him. Even years after first reading Twilight, when I think back to the experience of reading about Edward for the first time, I still get a little thrill and direly wish I could go back and read it over again.

Now I’ve read a ton of books since Twilight, (and had fleeting affairs with a lot of great characters) but it wasn’t until recently reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon that I found my Book Husband (an age-appropriate one, too!) The book itself was pretty damn good (4 stars out of 5, if you’re wondering) but the chemistry between the main character, Claire, and her Scottish Highlander beast of a husband, Jamie, was strong enough to carry the whole book. Who needs a plot? (there was one—a great one—by the way), but really, just stick Claire and Jamie in a room together and be done with it already.  A world where Jamie Fraser doesn’t really exist is cruel and unfair. 

So, who are/were your greatest book boyfriends? Or dare I say, book husbands? 

Music or No?

It’s no secret to my husband that I cannot sit down and seriously write if there are absolutely any distractions present, be they the TV practically on mute in the next room, the dogs quietly bathing themselves under my desk, feeling the ever slightest urge to urinate, a north to northwest breeze blowing in through the windows, etc etc.

So you might be able to guess that I belong to the No Music During Writing camp. Don’t get me wrong—music definitely inspires me (there’s nothing like blaring a great song in the car to bring back fond teenage memories—Last Friday Night by Katy Perry and Tonight Tonight by Hot Chelle Rae inspired some of the party scenes in The Witch Hunter’s Bible) but when I actually sit down to write, I require near utter silence. And I have to say, I’m a lucky girl to have such a supportive husband (and such a solid-sleeping kid!), because utter silence is totally not a reasonable request!

So how about you? Do you listen to music when you write, or are you a Noise Nazi like me?

Book Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Short review: this book is crazy awesome!

Longer review (because who wants to read a long review?): One my all-time favorite movies is Ever After, which, if you don’t already know (you should be ashamed of yourself), is another Cinderella retelling. I’ve seen it a thousand times, and it doesn’t matter that Drew Berrymore’s accent slips up tons, it’s effing amazing. So, despite this Cinderella retelling being worlds apart from Ever After (cyborgs, anyone?) I’d already sort of made up my mind before reading it that it wouldn’t compare. I was wrong.

Cinder takes place in a chaotic and crowded post World War 4 New Beijing. The world is struggling with a deadly and mysterious plague outbreak as well as rising tensions with the Lunar people (a race of mind-controlling people from the moon). Cinder, a cyborg teenager and gifted mechanic, meets Prince Kai when he visits her market stall with a broken android. Some serious flirting ensues. From this meeting, Cinder is launched into the middle of some dangerous interspacial politics, not to mention a forbidden love affair. I won’t say too much more, because I don’t want to ruin it for you all, but yes, there is a ball. Yes, there’s an evil stepmother. And yes, things get ugly.

Top five reasons I love this book.

1. Prince Kai. Now I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not because he’s hot and a prince. It’s because he’s not your standard YA love interest. He’s a teenager dealing with the sudden and overwhelming responsibility of leading a country in a time of political turmoil. He’s also charming and complex and funny and vulnerable. And okay, he’s hot.

2. Cinder. Props to Marissa Meyer for creating a unique and strong female main character who doesn’t lose all of her integrity and melt into a puddle the minute she falls in love.

3. The Romance. Forbidden love—need I say more?

4. The setting. I’m not a person that usually enjoys sci-fi stuff, and so I was really surprised to find that I loved this book’s setting immensely. I’m thinking it’s because it’s unique, but also close enough to what our world is like now that it was actually believable. Wait a minute—did I just say cyborgs, androids, moon queens, and hovers are believable? Okay, so maybe it’s just that Maybe Marissa Meyer is a talented author.

5. The supporting characters. Practically every single character in this book is insanely well-developed, from Cinder’s android, Iko, to the researcher, Dr. Erland, to the evil stepmother, Adri. No cardboard cutouts in this book.  

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a few drawbacks. One is that the big reveal in the end was pretty obvious from the beginning—I enjoyed the book immensely anyway. Also, I was pretty p.o’ed about the cliffhanger ending. I NEED a firm ending to be fully satisfied. Now I have to wait until next year to find out what happens next. If I didn’t already know what was going to happen because this is a retelling, I’d be knocking on Ms. Meyer’s door demanding answers (Just kidding, Marissa! You can cancel that restraining order.)

Five stars, easy. Can’t wait to read book 2 in The Lunar Chronicles.

Also, that was a long review. 

Finding Time to Write

“Where the hell do you find time to write?” This has to be the most frequent question I receive from my non-writer friends, right after “Can I have a walk-on role in the movie version of your book?”

And I can see why people might be curious. I have a full-time job and a busy 2-year-old son, not to mention a house to keep up and two dogs to neglect walk twice a day. Where can I possibly squeeze in time to write? The question is usually asked by other busy moms, and with boatloads of admiration and awe (to that, I refer you all to Ruth Lauren Steven, who has 4 kids and writes fantastic books—she’s the amazing one!) But while nearly all people ask the question good-naturedly, occasionally I do sense a soupcon of curiosity if maybe, perhaps, Michelle is neglecting her family/household duties in order to make time to write. To this, I say that is simply untrue. I make extra sure to only neglect my husband’s needs to write. Just kidding…

But seriously, I never write a word when my son is awake. So where the eff do I find the time? The answer is that I’m REALLY careful with every. single. minute of my free time.

I follow a writing schedule, replete with word count goals for each day that I must reach at the price of lost sleep (I also keep a crit partner who makes me stick to these goals and will flog me if I fail). Ben’s naps are 100% devoted to writing. The house might be a bit messy until the evening, but who cares? Plus, you’d be amazed how quickly one can clean a whole house when you have something you desperately want to do afterwards. When Ben goes to sleep at 8pm, I spend the rest of the evening writing until I crash or cry or meet my word-count goal—whichever comes first. And occasionally, when I’m experiencing the dreaded writer’s block, I’ll read instead, or *gasp* spend time with Logan or friends.

So really, the answer to the question isn’t very complicated or exciting. In fact, I really could have just said:

No Life+Reduced Sleep+Coffee+Time Management+Supportive Husband=Writing Time

Of course, now I have a blog and twitter to keep up with too, and that, I will admit, is very time-consuming. Obviously the answer is to find a part-time job so I can dedicate more time to social networking.

So that's how I do it, folks. How about you authors out there? How do you squeeze in your writing time throughout the day?

Query Critique

It's that time again y'all!

This week's query was so nicely done I was hard pressed to find things to pick at. Alas I did find a few things...and then got carried away as usual. But it was very well done! On a little side note, I've been asked by a few people how to enter query letters for critique, and so you will notice a new tab at the top with instructions. Thanks, authors, for participating! It's loads of fun.

Original Query Letter

Dear (Agent),

Eighteen-year-old Sir Caspric Graey wants exactly two things.

First, he wants to do something so heroic that the king will award him an estate of his own.  If he doesn’t acquire his own estate, he’ll have to live—or rather, endure—a life of dependency on his older brother.  Retrieving Contoria's lost prince seems like the perfect opportunity for estate-winning heroism.  That is, until some idiot steals the magical talisman needed to transport the prince home.  All evidence suggests this “someone” is Caspric’s older brother, but if Caspric incriminates him, he’ll be banished for betraying a member of his family.

The second thing Caspric wants is simpler, but just as difficult.  He wants to know who Mera, his family’s newest maidservant, is.  He saw her arrive in the middle of the night on a horse with golden tack, she's shockingly defiant, and she has an uncanny talent for swordplay.  She also happens to be gorgeous, but that, of course, is beside the point.

Unknown to Caspric, the attempts to keep the prince away from Contoria have a lot more than his older brother behind them, and Mera is much, much more than a maidservant.  The danger that sent the prince into exile has come back to haunt not only His Royal Highness, but Caspric and Mera as well.  If Caspric doesn’t figure out all this by the king’s birthday, he will mistakenly incriminate his brother, get himself banished, lose sight of Mera forever, and leave the prince to a horrible fate. 

THE MADMAN’S CROWN is a young adult fantasy novel told from multiple viewpoints.  The first in a potential series, it is complete at 100,000 words.  (Personal connection/why this agent.)  

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

{Contact info redacted}

Query Letter After I Got My Grubby Paws on it

Dear (Agent),

Eighteen-year-old Sir Caspric Graey wants exactly two things.

First, he wants to do something so heroic that the king will award him an estate of his own.  If he doesn’t acquire his own estate, he’ll have to live—or rather, endure—a life of dependency on his older brother.  Retrieving Contoria's lost prince seems like the perfect opportunity for estate-winning heroism.  That is, until some idiot steals the magical talisman needed to transport the prince home.  All evidence suggests this “someone” is Caspric’s older brother, but if Caspric incriminates him, he’ll be banished for betraying a member of his family. This is great! There isn’t a thing I’d change in this para. Intriguing and very, very well written.

The second thing Caspric wants is simpler, but just as difficult.  He wants to know who Mera, his family’s newest maidservant, is.<Feels like there could be a smoother way to word this sentence. A bit bumpy, what with the commas breaking it up  He saw her arrive in the middle of the night on a horse with golden tack, <This is a comma splice. I’d suggest a period here to fix this she's shockingly defiant, and she has an uncanny talent for swordplay.  She also happens to be gorgeous, but that, of course, is beside the point.

Unknown to Caspric, the attempts to keep the prince away from Contoria have a lot more than his older brother behind them, and Mera is much, much more than a maidservant. Sounds like a great plot! The danger that sent the prince into exile has come back to haunt not only His Royal Highness, but Caspric and Mera as well.  If Caspric doesn’t figure out <I get to be REALLY picky on you because this query is so well done to begin with. Can you use a stronger verb in place of ‘figure out’? Might make the stakes sound more exciting. How about ‘if Caspric can’t unravel the mystery by…’ Or something like that, anyway all this by the king’s birthday, he will mistakenly incriminate his brother, get himself banished, lose sight of Mera forever, and leave the prince to a horrible fate. <There’s something not quite right with the stakes here. The way this is worded makes it sound like this is exactly what happens in the book instead of what might happen. Also, the wording isn’t quite as exciting as it needs to be, making it fall a little flat. I suggest changing out the wording ‘he will mistakenly…’ to something like ‘he could mistakenly…’. Also, I’d like to see the last stake, ‘leave the prince to a horrible fate’, worded in such a way that it has more impact. It has so much potential but the word choices don’t really do it justice.

THE MADMAN’S CROWN is a young adult fantasy novel told from multiple viewpoints.  The first in a potential series, it is complete at 100,000 words.  (Personal connection/why this agent.)  This is great! I love that this book is told in multiple POVs, yet the author didn’t muddy the query by trying to fit in everyone’s perspective. Though she did such a great job handling this, I was asked for advice on how to write a query letter for a book with multiple POVs, so I give you all this link to a post on Query Shark. This query is an excellent example of how to handle this situation.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

{Contact info redacted}

Book Review: The Duff by Kody Keplinger

First off, let me start off by saying that this book is the reason my skin got all wrinkly and I probably acquired heat stroke from reading in the bath for hours (note: when I should have been doing many other things, like writing sequels and doing laundry and ironing my clothes for work). I couldn’t put The Duff down! It sucked me in right from the first page. And how could it not? It contained all the elements of a contemporary YA novel that typically make me read way too late into the night: awesome main character, gritty plot, hot boy, and some seriously steamy sex scenes (not the fade-to-grey stuff common in YA).  

So thanks, Kody Keplinger! Thank you very much.

The premise of The Duff is this: Bianca Piper is a cynical, sarcastic seventeen-year-old who doesn’t put up with crap. When her high school’s man-whore, Wesley, calls her the Duff (Designated Ugly Fat Friend), she throws her Coke in his face. But as the stressors in Bianca’s life begin piling up, she surprises herself by kissing him. And liking it. She throws herself into a secret enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley as a distraction from her life. Awesome plan, right? Wrong. And cue obsessive bath-reading.

I adored this book.

Bianca is blunt and sarcastic and funny and relatable and overall a great narrator. There was only a very brief moment in the beginning of the book when I questioned the authenticity of her actions, but then I remembered some of the friends I had as a teenager (not me! I was a perfect angel—I’m strictly talking about my friends here) and I was like, wait, who am I kidding? This book is very honest. Sure, Bianca makes some terrible decisions, but don’t a lot of teenagers? And the sex and swearing isn’t gratuitous by a long shot. In fact, they're vital to the plot and to the lesson that the book teaches.

And Wesley. Oh, Wesley! He started out being such a jerk (he called her the Designated Ugly Fat Friend TO HER FACE) so that when she kissed him for the first time I wanted to slap her. But Keplinger does such a great job developing his character throughout the book that I quickly found myself rooting for him. He felt so real he leapt off the page. And don’t get me started on their chemistry. Their love-hate relationship had me squealing and laughing out loud and frantically flipping the pages well into the night.

There were a few threads that weren’t quite resolved to my liking, such as the Jake-the-ex-boyfriend thing, but I loved the entire book and especially the chemistry between Bianca and Wesley so much that I can only deduct a quarter of a star for that. The Duff is a solid 4.75 stars out of 5.

I could say more, but already this blog post is nearing on too long, so I’ll finish with this fact: Kody Keplinger was only 18 when she wrote this book. That makes me want to crawl into bed and whimper a little bit, because that’s SO not fair.  

The C Word (not that, you bunch of pervs! I'm talking about CRITICISM)

No one likes to hear their baby’s ugly. Yet, as a writer, it’s pretty much a guarantee you’ll hear some variation of that sentiment at least seventeen times a day (there’s me quoting science again). Hopefully, if you have supportive critique partners, like I do, they’ll at least soften the blow by telling you how unique your baby is and how much like a BABY it appears. Still, you will definitely hear your work isn’t quite what you thought it was and that it needs improvement.

So how do I deal with this?

For a change, I have more than ‘I don’t know, what do you expect, some sort of advice or something?’ to contribute. 

It starts off with the icky recounting of my first ever writerly criticism. After spending 3 months toiling over my first novel, obsessing over every word, lurking on a writing website and wondering if I should post my work, not posting it because I was too nervous people would hate it, rewriting every single word until I was SURE no one would have a single negative thing to say, I finally posted the first chapter for review. And then I sat back and waited for all the praise to roll in.

That didn’t happen.

My very first critiquer said something very similar to this: ‘No one cares if the sun is shining or if the raindrops fall like dewy tears. Weather is not a hook. It’s boring. Never write about weather in the first paragraph.’  (Just to clarify here, I DID shamefully write about weather in the first paragraph, but none of those examples actually appeared in my writing).

I cried. I cried the whole day. Then I fought against the intense urge to call this guy an asshole, among other nasty things. And then I realized he was right, dammit. Weather is boring! Who likes to read about weather in the first para of a book? So perhaps the guy didn’t have to be so rude about it, but in the end I did receive some real, honest feedback that improved my work. So I thanked the guy sincerely and went to work fixing up my chapter.

Then I wrote another book and got an agent.

What we can all learn from this story in ten simple points:

1.That guy was mean and made me cry. Wahhhhhh!!!!!
2.  Voodoo dolls are handy in cases such as this.
3. When someone has something negative to say, especially if they’re being a crusty old fart about it, it’s easy to become defensive, or worse, lash back at the offending party. When these urges strike, it’s a good idea to take some time to cool off and think before responding. This is key not saying things you will later come to regret, embarrassing yourself, and appearing ungrateful.
4. Sometimes people have had a bad day and it bleeds out into other parts of their life. They don’t mean it.
5.  Find the positive in the negative. You might have to really dig around to find it, but it’s usually in there somewhere. It’s an opportunity for improvement disguised as an insult!
6. No matter how harsh a criticism may appear, someone took the time to read your work and comment on it, and that at least deserves a thank you. BE THE BIGGER PERSON!
7. Hey, sometimes people are just mean. *shrug*
8. Keep writing. Don’t let someone’s criticism of your work turn you away from doing what you love. Look what happened to me—I went on to write another book and land an agent (Have I mentioned recently that I have an agent? I do.)
9. Remember what it’s like when someone is harsh to you, and don’t do it to others. There’s a nice way to say anything. In fact, I think the term is The Shit Sandwich (see diagram above). It's when a criticism is sandwiched by compliments. For example. “My, what an original idea for a book! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book about time traveling squirrels before. You might an edge on the market there. But, one small question: does the squirrel need to speak German? Perhaps a reader would relate more to the squirrel if they could understand him? Anyway, like I said, very unique idea! What an imagination you have.” (note: I never said it was a GOOD idea, so I didn’t lie. Also, I wasn’t mean. Also, maybe time-traveling squirrels ARE the next big thing.).
10.  I only had 9 points. So yeah…

Query Letter Critique

It’s that time again for another query letter critique! I’m really happy to say that this week’s query is another fabulously written letter, which I’m honored to take a look at J 


Reminder: My comments are subjective and someone else may entirely disagree. I’d love for comments, but please let's all be nice!

My comments are in blue.

Original Query Letter

Seventeen-year-old twins Isabell and Amelia Kincaid live in a Victorian-esque world of ray guns, robots and steam-powered carriages. But while Isabell desires a life with her one true love, Amelia craves adventures, sword fighting and wants to travel the world until both their dreams are crushed.

Isabell’s name was chosen from a secret lottery to be the mistress of Prince Finbar. An illness made his future wife barren and she must bear him the heir the princess cannot. As for Amelia, a wealthy foreigner twice her age has bought her in exchange for allowing her mama to keep the family business.

They both manage to escape, but are captured by bounty hunters and taken to the Prince’s castle. Amelia refuses to leave Isabell alone, prolonging the ting-a-ling sounds of wedding bells, and ends up falling for the one person she shouldn’t: Prince Finbar. And Isabell soon learns her name wasn’t chosen by the luck of the draw. When the sisters find out the King’s right-hand man plans to kill the royal family and make Isabell wear the crown, they must find a way to stop the murders and reclaim the one thing everyone is trying to steal from them—their freedom.

VICTORIAN DECIET is YA Steampunk at 80 000 words. The world of VICTORIAN DECIET exists in a Jane Austen-like society set in future Atlanta where the motto is party like it’s 1899.

Query Letter After I Got My Grubby Paws On It

Seventeen-year-old twins Isabell and Amelia Kincaid live in a Victorian-esque world of ray guns, robots and steam-powered carriages. Good first line! But while Isabell desires a life with her one true love, Amelia craves adventures, sword fighting and wants to travel the world until both their dreams are crushed. Amelia craves traveling the world until their dreams are crushed? Read that line out loud. I’m not sure this sentence conveys exactly what you’d like it to. I’d suggest giving the dream crushing its own sentence to fix this problem, with the added benefit of giving more power to your hook. Also, I like what you’re trying to say in this para, but there’s something about the wording that doesn’t quite work for me. I think it’s that the first sentence and second sentence don’t seem overly connected to each other, yet are joined by the conjunction ‘But’ at the beginning of the second sentence. This would work if you’d said something along the lines of ‘The twins are alike in every way, but….’ There was probably a way faster way of explaining all this. I’m unaware of it. Also, I’m really picky and others may disagree.

Isabell’s name was chosen from a secret lottery to be the mistress of Prince Finbar. An illness made his future wife barren and she <Who is the ‘she’ here? The future wife is the subject of this sentence, but I think you mean to say Isabell. I’d write her name in place of ‘she’ to clear up the confusion here. must bear him the heir the princess cannot. As for Amelia, a wealthy foreigner twice her age has bought her in exchange for allowing her mama to keep the family business. Sounds like a really fun plot!

They both manage to escape, but are captured by bounty hunters and taken to the Prince’s castle. Amelia refuses to leave Isabell alone, prolonging the ting-a-ling sounds of wedding bells, <Not sure what that means, but that could be just me! and ends up falling for the one person she shouldn’t: Prince Finbar. Inneresting. And Isabell soon learns her name wasn’t chosen by the luck of the draw. When the sisters find out the King’s right-hand man plans to kill the royal family and make Isabell wear the crown, they must find a way to stop the murders and reclaim the one thing everyone is trying to steal from them—their freedom. I really like this last sentence. Good stakes for a query letter. I wonder about the whole Amelia falling for the prince, though. Can you mention that problem in the stakes as well? Otherwise it sort of feels dropped into the para. The other option is leaving that sentence out. 

VICTORIAN DECIET is YA Steampunk complete (very important to include this word! Red flag if it’s missing) at 80 000 words. The world of VICTORIAN DECIET exists in a Jane Austen-like society set in future Atlanta where the motto is party like it’s 1899. <While this is cute, I don’t think you need it and I’m not sure the jokey tone fits in with the rest of the query. Of course, if your book does have a largely jokey tone, I’d encourage you to try to weave more of that into the query letter.

All the elements of a great query letter are here. Your writing is smooth and, save for a few tweaks here and there, this is a great start! Thanks for sharing—you query-suppliers are brave!—and good luck. 

Book Review: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

I don't think I have words for how amazing this book was, but I'll give it a sorry attempt anyway.

Forbidden is a contemporary YA novel about a brother and sister, Maya and Lochan, who must raise their four younger siblings together since their mother is a useless drunk whom I hate (seriously, she really sucks). Then they fall in love. Maya and Lochan, that is. Sounds awkward, right? Only, it's not. It happens subtly and realistically. Maya and Lochan struggle the whole book to keep their family together despite the constant new challenges threatening them. They support each other, comfort each other, worry together, and are overall the only person that each other can be vulnerable with. Somewhere along the line, a love stronger than that of a brother and sister develops. And let me just say this: It's sign you're in good hands when an author can make you root for a brother and sister's incestuous relationship to work out. And that's what I did the whole time, right up until the ending, which I could use ten paragraphs to expand upon but won't because I want you all to read it and I don't want to ruin it for you. Just trust me. It's good.

Read it. Now!

That is all.