[AUGUST UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : August Edition ~

This month it was difficult to choose between the two novels I read. In the end I've gone with Katie McGarry's Dare You To, Book #2 in the Pushing the Limits series and actually my favourite to date. The honourable mention was Nyrae Dawn's Façade (Games, #2). Click HERE for my full GoodReads review of Dare You To, which contains spoilers.

I wasn't really sure what I would think of this book, since I'd recently re-read Book #1 and remembered why I loved it...and why I didn't. I can't remember Book #3 very well, but I think I'm safe in saying Dare You To is my favourite.

A problem I had with Book #1 was the patheticness of the heroine, Echo. Beth is a totally different kettle of fish; she's no shrinking violet, and doesn't faint against walls or black out. Wow, what a meanie I am! Poor Echo. ;) But seriously, I like that Beth didn't need to be constantly caught (literally, caught before she fell over) by the sexy hero. Ryan also gets major stars for not calling Beth "baby". He didn't, right?! I only remember Noah doing that with Echo... Disclaimer: I love Noah.

Dare You To cracked me up on many occasions - Beth's language is just as foul as mine (well, okay, I'm worse), and she was so fiery. Her early exchanges with Ryan were hilarious - she was a real force for him to reckon with. I also found it refreshing that Ryan was the 'innocent' one in this story, as opposed to the usual 'good' girl / bad boy dynamic in this series. Ryan was still sexy, so there was no letdown there. But Beth taught him a thing or two about life. That said, of course I adore bad boy characters - as long as they're not total assholes.

I remember reading Pushing the Limits and always wishing that Echo would become more of a rock for Noah. The school counsellor did that instead, while Noah was always having to be Echo's rock. Not that he was complaining. I was the one complaining. And I'm not really sure that Beth went much further in this regard than Echo did, but she had her moments. It was such a relief when she finally realised Ryan was right about her fear of having a new life...and possible happiness.

One downside to this read was seeing Isaiah so forlorn, but since I knew this gets addressed in Book #3, it wasn't really a problem.

I gave this book five stars!

This is the GoodReads blurb:

"If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs-until the day her uncle swoops in, and Beth finds herself starting over at a school where no one understands her. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does. 

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him. 

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image is risking everything for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all...."

Currently Reading: City of Glass,

Book #3 in The Mortal Insruments series

(a re-read so I can finally read the last three books).

~ Do You Have Goals? : August Edition ~

First up, some news! There is a new blog for this blog hop, rather than us going straight to Misha's blog. Check out the new Do You Have Goals? blog, and join our hop if you want to have some extra motivation for achieving your goals. :)

Now, some updates on my own creative goals:

• Music - Somehow I believed I had recorded a song for our new album that I had never even downloaded the instrumental track for. Apparently I hallucinated an entire thing where this song was totally done already. So I still have one more song to do... Thankfully, Billy is happy with the other two, so no more work required on those!
• DAPHNE - I'm continuing to post stuff at Absolute Write. I've had a lot of help from people with my opening few scenes for DAPHNE. It's been a hard slog (and isn't over yet), but I feel like I'm finally getting to the right place with the opening scenes.
• Critique Partner! - In other exciting news, I appear to have found myself a new critique partner, one of the ladies who's been helping me on AW. So that's great! I'm excited at the chance to start getting some more in-depth and focused help on my work again, and to give said help in return.
• ON THE OUTSIDE - I've been revising the first chapter of OTO, which has been driving me nuts. As usual with my stories, there's a lot of bloating that needs culling, and the first scene possibly needs to be merged with a bit of the next scene. I've whittled it a lot so far, but have a way to go. I wanted to post it on AW for critique, but my perfectionist self won't allow that till I've got it into better shape.

So, that's about it for August. How are you all going with your various creative / other goals? And yes, I have some catching up to do with your blogs too.

[JULY UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals

Oops! I missed the deadline, but oh well, I'm still here to post for this month's book club & goals blog hops.

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : July Edition ~

I've read three novels / novellas this month, and have chosen Eleanor & Park as my novel of the month to share a review for. This is the non-spoilery version of the GoodReads (spoilery) version.

I vaguely remember back when I first heard about this book, reading some reviews of it that were mixed - I remember not everyone loving the book for whatever reason. I admit I was a bit influenced by that memory when I started reading - I was in the first chapter and wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy the read. Well, now that I've finished reading, I can say without hesitation that I loved Eleanor & Park! It was tragic, romantic, and funny. I love the emphasis on music, too.

The book ends on an interesting note that has seemingly divided readers - some are dying to know more, while others (like me) think that what we are left with is enough. It's not a neatly tied up ending, but there is a sense of hope that makes me happy.

Richie was such a creepy character - yech! I felt sorry for Eleanor's mum, but also angry with her, for much of the book. But I loved Park and his family - his parents were great characters.

This is the GoodReads blurb:

"Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try."

Currently Reading: my own novels...for editing.

But hopefully soon, book #2 in Lydia Kang's duology.

~ Do You Have Goals? : July Edition ~

I'm continuing to work on my revisions for DAPHNE II, but now that studies are starting up as of Monday, I'm not sure how much progress I'll be making for the time being. I also did another thing - I logged back into Absolute Write (the Water Cooler forums) after approximately 6 years of absence, and started posting again.

I've shared the beginning of DIE BEACHSIDE and the first chapter of SUNDOWN III. The former has attracted feedback that surprised me - I need to cut out perhaps the first 1k of words. And I thought that little novella was pretty lean. Gosh, critique feedback is good. It wakes you up from your slumber. As for the SUNDOWN III chapter, that also needs some condensing, but the feedback was overall more favourable. I got some great feedback that I can work with for that one.

Oh, oh, something REALLY EXCITING? I finally got those last two songs done and sent them off to Billy. WOO! I just hope he doesn't ask me to do heaps more work on them. But if he does, so be it, I will do what I can. I'm hoping we can get down to the business of getting our second Woody's A Girl album out in the next few months.

I hope you are all doing well!

Query letters are hard to write because...

<< Hope Roberson recently wrote a "Best of the Best" post which focused on the art of writing pitches and loglines. In that post she talked about how whenever somebody asks her what her story's about, she gets all incoherent and "um, blah" (I paraphrased). Her point was that, surely since she wrote the story, she should be the one who knows it best, and should be able to easily summarise what it's about. But she has troubles with doing so.

I think many of us can relate to that! For me, reading her post reminded me that I've always struggled with writing queries. Maybe her post wasn't really about queries, but still, for me it's a similar deal. I wrote a successful logline once, and it garnered some serious agent interest. But queries are a different matter altogether. Sometimes it's like you've got too much space in which to ramble on, and so you end up doing just that - rambling.

But one thing I realised back when I was attempting to write queries was that...I don't actually understand my own story as well as I thought I did. The example was DAPHNE, which is the first novel I ever started other than my epic fantasy of doom that shall not be named (except it's called RAGEWATER). As I was attempting to write queries for DAPHNE, and getting seriously in-depth critique at Absolute Write, I realised I don't even know the core of what my story's about! I'd really thought I did, but the more I tried to summarise the story, the more obvious it became that I didn't.

Suffice it to say, I've stopped attempting to write queries for the time being. My novels need to actually become what they're meant to be before I can try to write a summary of what they are.

Have you mastered the art of the pitch/logline/query?

Thick Skin - my story

The following blog post was inspired by Ruth Schiffmann's "Thick Skin" blog post. Thanks Ruth!

Recently I read a blog post in which a fellow writer asked the question: Do you have a thin skin/thick skin story to share? I'm going to expand on the answer I gave her here. I've gone through life being told my writing's great, albeit mostly by biased friends and family members. I've had some criticism from strangers that I'd call 'flaming'. They helped me develop what I thought was a pretty thick skin. But then I got serious about my writing, and joined Absolute Write.

For those unfamiliar with it, AW is a great place to go for honest feedback on your writing. I submitted a chapter for critique - a prologue. Feedback started rolling in, and for the most part it was pleasant but honest. Pleasant. Honest. Helpful. Encouraging, and constructive. Then it happened - I got some more critique, and it was harsh. Seriously HARSH. Like a huge bitter angry rant, intimating the reader's utter boredom with my writing. My writing was so boring she couldn't get to the end of the chapter. I was wasting her time, and that made her angry.

Fighting back tears, I turned off the laptop and went to bed. Couldn't sleep. I lay there stewing, feeling by turns devastated and angry and...confused. Didn't this girl have anything nice to say about my writing? Everyone else had! Not this one, though. And for all the 'niceness' of the other feedback, this brutal stuff was what stuck with me, whirled around in my head, plagued me. I couldn't stop thinking about it. And slowly it dawned on me that while the mean girl was seriously mean, she actually...had a point.

A really good one.

I got up again (it was a "school night", already way past bedtime), turned my laptop back on. I started rewriting. Mad scramble to fix what the mean girl had (rightfully) bitched about. It started slowly, but I wound up cutting about 7k of unnecessary words. Like, the whole prologue plus other chapters. Seven thousand words from a seriously bloated manuscript that needed trimming. Trimming is a funny word to use. Doesn't quite do the task justice. Point is, this horrible mean feedback that had so upset me resulted in huge improvements to my manuscript. It also taught me that I can take harsh critique. I can take it or leave it, but if my gut tells me to take it, I can do so and it won't kill me. It'll help me.

I'll say it hurt. Oh yeah, it hurt a LOT. But it taught me a valuable lesson. So I thank that mean girl, because she gave me a wake-up call and helped me develop this thick skin of mine.

May Blog Chain @ Absolute Write - character relationships

It's time for another Absolute Write Blog Chain, and this time our theme is as follows:

Show a character's approach to relationships in a short scene. A harmless exchange between mother and daughter? A submissive character overwhelmed by a dominant partner? A passionate lover's quarrel? A forlorn, unrequited letter?

Use your characters' interaction to show the dynamics of their relationship, show how they're growing together or growing apart, or just have silly fun. Character descriptions at the beginning are forbidden this time around--let them speak or act for themselves!

I've chosen an excerpt from CARNIVAL (after a loooooot of deliberation about which novel I should pick an excerpt from, since I considered about 3-4 different ones). This is the second book (sort of; more like a prequel I guess) in the SUNDOWN series. I'm not allowed to tell you about the characters, but have to let this writing speak for itself. It'll be interesting to see if it does or not:

Adelai helped the unsteady girl up and supported her on her feet. Then she started making the rounds saying farewell to the others. I waited eagerly for her to tell me goodbye too. This was my chance. I'd wait until she was gone, and then I'd slip out quietly and head back downtown. The CBD was within easy reach, only ten minutes walk away. And nobody here would notice my disappearance. They were all off their faces.

It was a good plan, until it dissolved before my eyes.

Adelai stopped in front of me. "You coming?"

"Um…where?" My mind was suddenly working overtime.

"If he wants to stay, that's cool!" the bartender called, and others added their agreement.

Oh hell no. I climbed resignedly to my feet.

"I told you there'd be a couch available," Adelai murmured, her gaze steady. "It's a bit crowded here. You're welcome at ours."

"I'm all right," I said. "I'll just head on home."

"How will you get there?"

My mind couldn't keep up. I just ended up staring at her stupidly.

She shook her head. "Well, there you go. You're coming with us. And remember, I'm the one who dragged you into this. I wouldn't want to leave you stranded." I went to protest, but she continued smoothly, "I remember you spent all your money, too." A small smile appeared on her face. "We're getting a cab, so why don't you come along? Our couch is really comfy."

I just stared down at her, increasingly frustrated with the situation, and with myself for being so slow-witted. I tried to buy some time to think by handing the bass guitar back to the bartender. But that didn't take long, and when I turned to face Adelai again, she was still watching me with an unreadable expression.

What the hell did she want from me anyway? She was being kind and generous, some might say to a stupid degree…but what did she get out of it? What would hanging out with a walking train wreck like me do for her?

"John!" she yelled out of the blue, startling me. She turned her head slightly in the direction of the hall.

I heard a voice call out faintly from elsewhere in the house.

Adelai called loudly, "We're going home right now! You coming?"

Another muffled response followed, and Adelai smiled faintly and shrugged. Then she gestured for me to follow her.

With consternation, I did just that.

Check out the other participants in this month's Blog Chain:

orion_mk3 - http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (link to this month's post)
Proach - http://desstories.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
Yoghurtelf - http://thefarseas.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
AuburnAssassin - http://clairegillian.com (link to this month's post)
aimeelaine - http://www.aimeelaine.com/blog (link to this month's post)
Della Odell - http://dellaodell.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
jkellerford - http://jennykellerford.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
juniper - http://www.katjuniper.com (link to this month's post)
Steam&Ink - http://steamandink.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
LadyMage - http://www.katherinegilraine.com/ (link to this month's post)
pezie - http://www.erinbrambilla.com/ (link to this month's post)
xcomplex - http://arielemerald.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
Inkstrokes - http://drlong67.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
dolores haze - http://dianedooley.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)

A-Z blogging challenge "J" - Blog Chain (my character interviews me)

Okay, so this is another "two birds, one stone" moment, where I participate in this month's AbsoluteWrite blog chain, and post my A-Z entry for the letter J. At first we were going to interview our characters, but then orion_mk3 came up with an even cooler idea - have our characters interview us!).

I have decided to give the reins to the ghost of one of my characters, JD. FYI, "JD" is just what I'm calling him (his name does start with J, but in the novel(s) he's called by his full name, not JD). So, let's see how I fared under JD's interrogation:

JD appears to me in my dreams, crossing his arms and frowning at me. “So, what’s with all these ‘J’ names? I mean, you’ve got Jared, you’ve got Jules, and then there’s me! What is it, a J fixation or something?”

I tilt my head in thought. “Honestly? It just happened that way. Don’t accuse me of having some master J-name plan or something, because I didn’t.”

He shrugs. “Okay, take it easy! But look, I really want to know—why’d you have to kill me off? What’d I ever do to you?”

“I’m sorry about that—I really am. But I had to kill off the absolute nicest character I could find—and you qualified. At least you went down happy, right?”

“Well, that’s true,” he says thoughtfully. “I was doing what I love best. Still, I brought such shame on my bandmates—did you ever think how my death would impact them?”

“I’m really sorry, but it had to happen.”

He lifts his brows. “Okay, don’t even say it was for character development! I’ve heard that one too many times.”

“But you’ve got to admit Jared and Louise were just way too pukeishly happy—I had to mess it up for them somehow, didn’t I?”

“Still!” he protests, “They’re such good people! And they’d already gone through so much.”

“Listen, I was hurting too, man! I was hurting for them. But as Louise herself once said, ‘Life needs the ups and downs...doesn’t it?’ So in a way, she kind of asked for it.”

JD’s eyes flash with anger, an emotion he very rarely felt while he was living. “That’s crap! You need to seriously rethink what you do for kicks—killing people off, throwing spanners in works, tearing lovers apart.”

“Gee, JD, I’ve gotta say, you’re a lot more feisty as a ghost.”

He frowns. “I’ve had a lot of time to stew in my own angry juices, I guess.”

“But at least you got teamed up with Orestes in the afterlife, right?”

“True,” he says with reluctance. “That dude is hilarious.”

“He is. And I’m glad you guys get along.”

JD mutters to himself. “Still, it’s no excuse!”

“Look, is there anything else you wanted to ask? I’ve got to get going...I’ve just finished draft #3 of book 1 and I need to get onto the next version.”

He rolls his eyes. “All right—one last question. Those two are gonna be happy in the end, right?”

“Oh yeah, don’t worry. Credits will roll and the audience will be left with one seriously huge Happily Ever After.” After a moment I add, “Any future misery will be off camera.”

“Errr...that doesn’t really reassure me much...”

“Seriously,” I say, reaching out to squeeze JD’s hand. “It’s going to be okay. Now you really should go off and rest in peace.”

With that, he begins to fade.

And here's a list of other participants:

orion_mk3 - http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com
LadyMage - http://katherinegilraine.com
COchick - http://joannchaney.blogspot.com
Steam&Ink - http://steamandink.blogspot.com
xcomplex - http://www.arielemerald.blogspot.com
pezie - http://www.erinbrambilla.com
aimeelaine - http://www.aimeelaine.com/blog
auburnassassin - http://clairegillian.com
Della Odell - http://dellaodell.wordpress.com
Juniper - http://www.katjuniper.com
Proach - http://desstories.blogspot.com
dolores haze - http://dianedooley.wordpress.com/

March Blog Chain (AW) - secondary characters

Well, finally I get to participate in one of these Blog Chains, and this is what our fearless leader came up with for March:

Tis time for another blog chain. This month’s theme is Surprising Secondary Characters. Write about a secondary character that surprise you in some way. There is going to be two parts, so please read carefully.

Part one: Describe the character in your novel in 50 words or less.

Part two: Post a scene that shows why this character is special in in 100 words or less.

The goal is to be creative, have fun and discover new blogs. So, step on up and join in the March’s blog chain. Don’t forget to include a link to your blog on the thread.

So, without further ado...my character is taken from SUNDOWN, and is one of my favourite minor characters ever.

Part One:
Edgar Delaney is an embittered rockstar who hates most people. He's touring as a guest guitarist for a headlining band, whose members are some of his best (and only) friends. He spends his time backstage reading Jodi Picoult novels, drinking pineapple juice and rolling his eyes.

Part Two:

"So…what does a person have to do to become a rock star?"

Edgar shook his head. "Don't tell me you're aspiring to it?"

I laughed. "What if I don't have a choice? What if it's in my genes?"

"It's not. But since you asked…you'd have to do things like: sleep with all your friends' spouses; snort coke off the stage while your band was in the middle of playing a song… Hmm, smashing up a few hotel rooms would help—tried that one yet? Oh, and pissing on the crowd is always a deal sealer."

Participants so far:

Ralph Pines: http://ralfast.wordpress.com

Me: http://thefarseas.blogspot.com

Proach: http://desstories.blogspot.com

Knotane: http://knotane.wordpress.com

LadyMage: http://katherinegilraine.com

Dolores Haze: http://dianedooley.wordpress.com

Orion mk3: http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com

You're next!

If you check this thread and sign up, anyway.

ABNA...why not?

Has anyone else entered this yet? I know the deadline's not till Feb. 6, but I've already put mine in. I've gone with SUNDOWN. Every now and then I go back and edit what's there, i.e. the pitch.

It's exciting!

In the critiquing circle I'm participating in via AW, I'm the next up for having my chapters ripped apart. Should be fun, and hopefully helpful too!

Meanwhile, I have written a bit more of STORM in the last few days, and I am currently halfway through the 2nd-last chapter. I'm pretty sure there'll only be one more after this one, to tie things up. But who knows what'll happen during revisions.

I've really been looking forward to NaNoEdMo, when I can really get stuck into editing FIRE. I can't wait to see the words slough away under my iron editing thumb. Er, yes, my thumb is iron. Or it will be.

And that's about it for updates. Except I wrote a story this week for Chrysalis which involves my idea of the most pathetic girl on the planet. I feel sorry for her, because her entire life is her jerk-faced boyfriend. And guess what happens? He dumps her.

As my critiquing buddy Jenn put it after reading... "Ouch."

Speaking of both Jenn AND Chrysalis, Jenn's story is up for this week. And I must say that after reading it, I was in a state of shock and awe. It's pretty AWESOME.

Query letter #1: Sundown

No, I'm not going to share it, because I'm not quite done with it yet. Seriously though, I am feeling pretty good about how this one's shaping up. After probably 50 revisions following advice on the AW forums, I think I'm really getting near to the finished, prettied-up product.

I don't know why it took me so long to figure out the best plot point to end the query on - the one where Louise has just risked her heart once again, and gets rejected...and then the reader's waiting to see what will happen next. Naturally since it's a romance, you've gotta figure it'll end well. But it's the getting there that's the fun part.

Anyway...I'm pretty happy with it as it is right now. I'm hoping that sometime soon, nobody will have anything to complain about. If you can post a query and get NO complaints about any part of it at AW, you know you've done a stellar job. :D

But as for the other two queries I've put up for the AW squirrels so far...well, let's not even go there. Sometimes you just have to scream at the sky and walk away. Which is what I did with those. But I did that with the Sundown query too, and have since moved onto much greener pastures! That are actually greener.

How is everyone going with their queries, if you're at that stage?!

Trying to find the balance

Right now in my edits of Sundown chapter 2 (yes, I am stuck on chapter 2...which used to be about chapter 7, before the current editing revolution began) I'm struggling with finding a balance between giving enough information and giving too much. Naturally it's okay to give information if you're showing it, but even then there's only so much backstory you are supposed to pack in, especially to the first main chapter of your novel (which this one is).

To give some idea of where I'm at, these are some of the dramatic changes that have taken place since I joined AW and started sharing my stuff:

1. Instead of my heroine meeting her hero on page 57 or so, which is what happened in my draft (at least, in the proof copy I just received :D), she meets him on page 9 (size 11 font, Times New Roman. hehe)
2. Instead of a word count of 128k or so, I have a word count of 113,362

Okay, there are other things that have changed, but those are the major ones I can think of. Pretty major, in my opinion. Anyway, because of all the backstory I've hacked out, I now have the dilemma I mentioned above. I have thrown the reader right into the action, but there hasn't been enough build-up to make them care about it.

I'm working on it, and I'm very grateful to the advice I've received at AW. I do think this is going to make the story much stronger overall. But yeah, it's a struggle striking that right balance.

What a learning process!

Meanwhile, I wrote a quick little ghost story today. You can find it here. Titled "Lost, Then Found". It's definitely not my most special writing, but I like the story itself. At first I was going to have Ralph turn out to be a psycho killer seeking revenge. But then I thought better of that idea. Or different, at least. Some might say the psycho killer twist would've been better. And why the heck was the mother even at the school? Honestly, I'm not much bothered with the answer there. Suspend reality a little, I say!

The Chrysalis Experiment - Entrance Survey

This is an entrance survey people can fill out if they so wish, for the Chrysalis Experiment. Once filled, you post a link to your survey (in whatever blog you put it in, or on Facebook or whatever) in the Chrysalis blog. Anyway, here's mine!

1. What are your current writing habits? Do you have any larger projects in the works?

My current writing habits are I write daily, even if it's rewriting/editing. And I know I don't need to tell you gals about my current projects, but I will anyway - I've got lots of novels waiting to be edited, others waiting to be finished, and still more that are waiting to be written. Oh, and about 52 short stories to be written this year. Woo!

2. Name three things you love about your own writing and three skills that you would like to work on this year. Do you have a list of writing goals for 2011?

Three things I love about it:

-I think for the most part I manage to avoid character/plot clichés, or at least if I rely on them I twist them up a little.

-My heroines are generally pretty kick-arse, far from pathetic needy creatures.

-I write in multiple genres and don't feel restricted in any way.

Three things I want to work on this year:

-Getting more used to letting go of my little darlings. I think I'm doing pretty well on that, but the better I get the better things will be!

-Not starting as many paragraphs with the same word, and getting rid of repetitiveness in general. Can't believe it took me printing out my entire ms to notice I'd pretty much repeated an entire descriptive paragraph in two different chapters. Ha.

-Using a thesaurus more. ;)

As for goals, you can see them here if you scroll down a bit. I need to do a new post for my 2011 goals at some point soon, so they're all on their own.

3. What do you find inspiring?

I have never really written to prompts before, but in the last month of 2010 I got into writing a bit of flash fiction based on prompts. And so, I'm finding that prompts are inspirational! I also frequently find myself inspired by music. I still need to write a ghost story, based in some eerie woods somewhere, thanks to Type O Negative.

4. What sort of things do you currently do to improve your writing?

I dare to share my writing with other writers, and make sure I listen to the advice they give. Also reading my work aloud does seem to work sometimes. And printing it out!! This is new to me, as I generally try to save trees, but I finally bit the bullet and printed out one of my novels, and...yeah...it's been illuminating so far.

5. Are you currently looking for a critique partner or beta readers? If so, what qualities would you like in a critique partner or beta reader?

I think I have more than enough critiquing partners right now. Let's say I'm completely polyamorous there. :D And I may also have a beta reader for Sundown, starting in Feb 2011. This chick is also writing about rock stars on tour, so I think we're aligned in our interests. Yay!! As for what qualities, well I'd want honesty, but not cruelty. And that honesty can be brutal. I can take it, as being a member of the AW forums has shown me. But not cruelty just for cruelty's sake.

Backstory

Here we are in 2011! So begins the year of the multiple writing goals. Bring it ooooon, I say!

Anyway...I want to talk about backstory for a sec, because:

Some of the advice I've got lately on Sundown has led me to believe (in something of a mini-epiphany, really) that what I formerly saw as great build-up toward the actual beginning of the story was in fact just build-up for me. I'm the writer who knows what she can expect, and enjoys working up towards those moments. But the reader is at a disadvantage: they've got no idea what's coming next; they don't know what they're in for, and I wouldn't want them to nod off before they get to the juicy stuff.

Hey, at least my backstory is nicely written, or so I'm told. There's always that. Still, it is backstory, and that's that.

So. New plan. Shedding the introductory info dump, then working it into the rest of the novel wherever it fits. Sounds pretty obvious, right? And I guess it should. But I know it's not a crime to be so close to your story you sometimes miss the obvious. That's what happened to me!

In short, I've had some pretty useful advice lately, and I am so very glad I joined the AW forums! I highly recommend them for anyone who hasn't signed up yet. Anybody who thinks they can handle the at times brutally honest feedback other members will give them on their work.