News

Author Skype Visits

Dec 6, 2012 | | 8 Comments

Not long ago, I had my first Author Skype Visit. It was so much fun and I would definitely do it again. My previous school that I taught at, Seoul Foreign School in Seoul, Korea, has a program where they take a week off from studies and explore other cultures or areas of expertise.

One of the programs is a writing course where students learn about how to write as well as tour and write around Seoul. My presentation kicked off their week and I hope inspired them in their writing.

How I did it:
1. First I set up a Skype account for me as an author. This was separate from my personal account.
2. I emailed the school my account details as well as an agenda of our visit and handouts for the students to use throughout their week of writing.
3. About 30 minutes before the visit, I set up my area where my computer was. I even had ‘props’ to show the students an insider’s view on how I write and what I do.
4. Once we were connected, I introduced myself and gave them a background of my writing experiences and what my upcoming book was about.
5. Their teacher had the student’s prepare questions to ask me. This was really fun because it gave me a chance to go into more details on how I work as a writer.
6. At the end of our time, I promised them bookmarks once they were designed. If I were to already have my book out, I would’ve emailed the class bookmarks and personalized autographed bookplates for each student.

Things to keep aware of:

1. Skype might blink out and you get disconnected. Don’t panic. Just decide ahead of time who is going to call who to get reconnected.
2. I had some time lags on my end. Stay calm and and ask the student’s to repeat their question.
3. In my situation, I couldn’t see the whole class at one time, only when the students came up to the camera in groups. I felt like I was talking to the wall so I had to ‘imagine’ a whole class in front of me.
4. Remember to smile and speak clearly.


Great links on Skype you should check out:

Have you ever participated in a skype visit as an author or audience? What was your experience like?

Using a Plot Grid

Dec 3, 2012 | , , , , | 8 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned pulling out my plot grid when I was revising a manuscript and promised to talk more about that later. Now that NaNo is finished and many of you have a very rough draft in place, it’s key to pull out or create a plot grid.

Why have a plot grid?

1. Plotting– Gives you a bird’s eye view of the structure of your plot.

I’m a sucker for a good plot. Especially one that’s unpredictable. Of course, creating an unpredictable plot is another whole blog post for another day.

2. Character Appearances– Allows you to see how often and which one of your characters appear throughout the book.

3. Setting– Where is your story taking place? Are you switching up your setting? To me nothing is more boring than bouncing your characters between the school cafeteria and home. Please don’t do that. At least for my sake.

So, you’re probably wondering what a plot grid looks like and how to put it together. Click here for the word document that I use. If you have a mystery plot, check this plot grid out.

You can also watch my vlog on how to make a bigger version of this. Personally, I need both.

So what do you find is helpful to making sure your plot flows, doesn’t lag, and isn’t filled with holes?

Review and Giveaway of SANCTUM

Nov 29, 2012 | , , , | 12 Comments

I have been excited to review for you SANCTUM by Sarah Fine. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how Fine would deal with the issue of suicide, which is ultimately what this book was about. But she creates characters and a world that are both intriguing and so real that I was sucked in from the get-go.

The Blurb from Amazon:

“My plan: Get into the city. Get Nadia. Find a way out. Simple.”  A week ago, seventeen-year-old Lela Santos’s best friend, Nadia, killed herself. Today, thanks to a farewell ritual gone awry, Lela is standing in paradise, looking upon a vast gated city in the distance – hell. No one willingly walks through the Suicide Gates, into a place smothered in darkness and infested with depraved creatures.

But Lela isn’t just anyone – she’s determined to save her best friend’s soul, even if it means sacrificing her eternal afterlife.

What I love about this book: There really is so much to love about Fine’s writing. She brings a unique twist on Heaven and Hell, which allows readers to look at the tough issue of suicide and rape in a different light. Her characters are real people. Nadia ,who is bogged down in the pressures of our society to be perfect. Lela, the “bad girl” who struggles to get her life on track despite no support from home. And yet despite these girls differences, how much they need each other to survive.

What makes this book unique: The concept of this book blew me away. Fine created a whole new world to set her story in, including characters such as Mazikins (demons). This allowed her to deal with issues teens face today by taking readers away from their own world and reliving those same conflicts in a fantasy setting.

Why you should read it: The romance, oh the romance. Malachi is hot, hot, hot. Do I need to say more?

My favorite line: “Either you’re a Mazikin, and I will destroy you, or you are ready to go before the Judge and get out of this city.”


Stalk Sarah Fine on her website or Twitter.

I’m also giving away my ARC to one person who comments below. Giveaway open to North American residents. Ends Dec. 9th.

GILDED is on Goodreads!

Nov 28, 2012 | , | 8 Comments


GILDED is now on Goodreads. My emotions are all jumbled up right now. Excitement. Scared. Freaking out (this is REALLY happening!). And so so happy. My dream is coming true.

I’d love you forever if you’d add GILDED to your Goodreads “read list”. Click here to find it.

Many of you have been reading my blog since I started this journey as a writer. Thank you for cheering me on and being totally amazing

Winner! And Stuff

Nov 26, 2012 | | 0 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been very busy lately. You know, eating turkey, consuming heaps of birthday cake and writing, writing, writing. It’s been a great month and I’m so excited about December because it’s just one month away from 2013, my debut year!!!!!

Okay, so I’m just a teeny, tiny bit excited over 2013. But you really can’t blame me.

Today I get to announce my winner of RENEGADE by J.A. Souders. It goes to Akoss! Just pop me an email with your address and I’ll send you that gorgeous book. My email is farley dot christina L at gmail dot com.

Book Launch for RENEGADE

Nov 14, 2012 | , , , , | 18 Comments

Last night my friends, Larissa, Tara, Liz and I headed to downtown Orlando to attend Jessica Souders’ book launch for RENEGADE. Jess had her launch in a cool, high-rise, open-spaced office area. This was one of the locations that inspired the setting for RENEGADE.

There were stacks of yummy food and these adorable cupcakes!


We jumped in line and got the last of the books she had. Jess signed them with her tagline, “Never forget”. I even got an extra autographed copy for you guys to give away at the end of this post!


Then we decided to make Jess cry by giving her an engraved bookmark with her book’s cover on it and the famous line from her book.

 Jess and Me!

Jess read a portion of the first chapter. Very moving. 

Group shot!


We had such a fun time hanging out and celebrating Jess’ big day. I won’t ever forget when she first got her editorial letter and later reading her revisions of RENEGADE. Last night was so exciting to see it all come together into a beautiful book to hold.

If you haven’t read RENEGADE, I highly recommend it. It’s full of action, mystery and romance. And if you haven’t, then enter my contest below. I’m giving away an autographed copy and swag (bookmark, pins and a magnet). Just enter the form by Nov. 24th!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Prepping to Write a Novel

Nov 5, 2012 | | 9 Comments

NaNo is underway and I’ve been plugging away at my next novel. If you’re mildly interested, I’ve started storyboarding it over here on Pinterest. I’m so hooked on Pinterest with having pictures relating to my novels. They’re great visuals for me to use as I’m writing and adding details to the settings.

One of the things that’s helped me write my first drafts quickly is prepping for my novel. I do a lot of my research in advance. This book, just like Gilded, required lots of research to make sure my details were correct.

I also plot out my novels in detail and imagine the story in my head so I know what feel I want the novel to have.

If you’re getting ready to prep for your next novel, check out my vlog for ideas:

NaNo Starts Today!

Nov 1, 2012 | | 8 Comments

I’m doing NaNo this year. I know. Crazy idea. I will be sleep deprived. I will be haunting Starbucks. But I’m determined to get most, if not nearly all, of this writing project I’m working on finished.

Any of you doing NaNo? If you are, sending luck your way!

Tackling the Killer Manuscript

Oct 26, 2012 | , , , , | 15 Comments

So you’ve written the story of your dreams. You’ve stamped your soul’s signature onto it. With all your heart, you believe it’s publishable, unique and marketable. It just has one itsy problem.


It’s a big fat mess.

Yep. That’s me with my latest WIP. It’s a new series that’s been rattling around in my brain for about five years. While GILDED was on submission I decided to write the impossibly complicated story.


It has earned the fond name of THE BEAST. You might have heard me refer to this in previous blog posts and on Twitter. Let me tell you, that book practically killed me. And I’m not finished with it. I don’t even know if it will sell. But I truly believe the story is stronger because of the process I put it through.

If you have a story like mine and you’re willing to not give up on it even though it’s a big fat mess, then here are some steps that might help you.

1.       Ask yourself if you’re committed to the story. Are you willing to do anything for it? This includes major rewrites, structural, plot, or overarching changes in the main character’s internal conflicts? If you can answer yes to all of these things, then keep reading. If not, forget your story and write a new one.



2.       Okay, so now that you’re committed, you need to write a query, synopsis, and a detailed outline. The query will tell you the central issue your story will face. The synopsis will give you an idea of flow of the story, and the outline will show where your plot holes are located, among other things.



3.       Study your query, synopsis, and outline. Personally, I like to also use a plotting grid. See the one attached that I made up using a traditional one with my own personal tweaks. (Don’t worry, I plan on vlogging more on this plot grid later) Find where your weaknesses are. Number them from biggest issues to smallest issues. Tackle each one step at a time.



4.       Now send it to two or three critique partners who will tell you if it’s awful or not. When they send back their notes, take them seriously. If more than one person is saying the same thing, you should strongly consider changing what they say is the problem. I find that my critique partners are right 99.9% of the time.


5.       At this point I print out their suggestions and highlight them in various colors. An example is: character issues,  I highlighted in blue, plot is in green, internal conflict with main character in purple. I’m a visual person and right away I can see where the central problems are lying in.


6.       From there, I brainstorm ways to fix my problems using a flow map. Something like this.

7.       Don’t be worried about trying multiple versions. In THE BEAST, all three of my crit partners didn’t like the opening. It was too slow, but they didn’t know how to solve it. They all gave me suggestion though.

What I found after looking at my color scheme of highlighting that most of my issues stemmed back to my main character’s internal conflict. It wasn’t strong enough and therefore those opening chapters reflected that. So I decided to write three different versions of chapters 1-3. It was hard work, but I think I got closer to solving the problem. Hopefully, you’ll be able to fix the problem without writing three different versions.  



8.       Mission accomplished! You’ve now finished another draft of your beloved manuscript. You read it and it’s all fixed. Yay! Go celebrate! But this was not the way it went with me. I felt I still had problems. I didn’t know what they were but something was still not right.



9.       Try, try again. So…. If this happens, write a new query, synopsis and outline (or plot grid). Then pull out your old versions and compare the two. What changes did you make? How did these changes improve your story? Can you take it to another level?



10.   Get More Feedback. If you’re like me, I decided I needed more feedback from my crit buddies. I resent it to two of the girls and they took another look at it. While they were looking at it, I didn’t even think about the manuscript. Instead, I took a break and started writing another book. I think sometimes, stepping away from a project helps you get a clearer picture of that project later on.



11.   Take a Break! After a few months break I took on the new suggestions that my crit partners gave me. I reread the manuscript with fresh eyes and made the changes I felt were needed.



12.   Send it off! A couple of weeks ago, I sent THE BEAST to my agent. Last week the two of us chatted. It’s still not submission ready, but it’s closer. He had great ideas of how to fix my biggest problems. I’ve been playing around with some different scenarios and seeing which angle will work best. I’ll let you know what happens!

Ultimately, the key to revision is the ability to adapt and be open to change. If you can do those two things, you have a chance to slay THE BEAST before it kills you.

Any revision tips that you have?

Archives

Categories