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Blog Tag- The Next Big Thing

Oct 23, 2012 | , , , | 10 Comments

I’ve been tagged by Justina Ireland, author of upcoming VENGEANCE BOUND, and Tara Gallina.

I’m supposed to answer all kinds of questions about the book I’m working on. I’m actually working on two other projects, one a sequel to GILDED, and another is a dystopic fantasy. Even though I’m over-the-moon excited about these two projects, they’re still in the secret stages where only the Brilliant Ones (my crit partners) and my ninja agent know details.

I thought you might want to hear a little more about GILDED because this baby is coming out to the world next November (Yes! My editor gave me a release month). 

What’s the working title of your book?


GILDED (Crossing fingers I get to keep the title)

Where did you come up with the idea for your book?


I love mythology. While living in Korea, I was teaching Greek mythology to my students. I thought it would be fun to learn more about mythology of the country I was living at. When I came across the myth of Hameosu and Princess Yuhwa, I was hooked. I knew I was going to write their story.

What genre does your book fall under?

Mythological paranormal

Which actors would you play the movie rendition?

For Jae, I’d choose Song Hye Kyo because of her look.

This is how Jae looks most of the time (ticked off, thanks to Haemosu)

But when she’s around Marc, the world changes:


For Marc, it would have to be William Moseley.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?


About a 16-year old Korean-American girl who discovers an ancient Korean god has been kidnapping the first-born daughters of her family for generations. And she’s next. 

If you’re interested in a pictorial idea of GILDED, you can check out my Pinterest page here.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Um…. there really isn’t much out there in YA. The closest would be the Percy Jackson books. I’m anxiously waiting to read Amanda Sun’s INK. From its blurb, it might be the closest YA out there in similarity.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Living in Korea absolutely inspired GILDED. I wrote what I saw, heard, smelled and lived. Most of the scenes were recreations of stuff that actually happened to me. Like the ski scene. So me.

What else about this book might pique a reader’s interest?

If you like books with: tough fighter girls, romance, lots of action, dragons, portals, fantasy and mythology then you’ll like GILDED.

Now who to torture next? *rubs hands deviously*

Andrea Mack!

Winners!

Oct 23, 2012 | | 1 Comment

The day has come to announce the winners of my EPIC book deal contest. First of all, thank you to everyone who tweeted, blogged and Facebooked the contest. You guys are so amazing. If I could give you a hug I would.

Thanks to Rafflecopter, it tallied up the totals and determined winners for me.

Here they are:

Writer’s Pack: Joy McCullough

Reader’s Pack: Jude Griffin

Traveler’s Pack: Jaime Heller

Email me your address at farley dot christinaL at gmail dot com

Congratulations!!!

Smart Ways to Sweat It Out

Oct 19, 2012 | , , | 11 Comments

The other day, I was sitting on the sidelines watching my son’s soccer practice. On the field behind me a football coach was yelling at his players, saying, “If you’re not sweating, you’re not working hard enough!”

My first thought was, “Man, I’m glad you’re not my boys’ coach.”


But that line bothered me for the rest of the day. Was he right? Will working hard make them better players? My thoughts turned to writing. If I worked harder, wrote more, would that make me a better writer?


The conclusion I came to was ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Yes, in that the more you do something, your craft is developed. But at the same time, if you’re doing it wrong, it’s like banging your head against the wall. It can hurt your craft and frustrate you.


How can we as writers be smart in our craft?

 

1.      Write as often as you can. I work a full time and part time job. I’m a mom and I’m taking classes. Time is more valuable than gold. But if I want to write, I just have to suck it up and sit down and write. That means I might only have an hour a day. But the reality is, the more I write, the better I get.

2.      Read. When you read, study the way the author has constructed the story. Pick one or two elements that you feel are lacking in your book such as plot, character arcs, or conflicts within a scene. Focus on those two elements as you read and see how that author has developed them. Write down notes in your journal at what worked and what didn’t. Read another book and do the same thing. I find I learn so much by reading other author’s books.



3. Find critique partners who know their stuff. These people don’t have to be writers. Sometimes your best critiquers are actually readers that have the eye for when a character isn’t being true to themselves or the plot is sagging. Trust them. Listen to them.

4. Attend writing conferences. Develop your craft by learning from experts. Your focus might change over the years, but there will always be new ways to develop yourself as a writer. You will never be too accomplished of a writer to not learn.

5.      Try something new. One of the best ways to stretch yourself at anything is to break out of your box. If you have this fabulous new idea of a book you’d love to write, but you think it will be too hard to accomplish, that means you need to write it. It may end up taking you many drafts and many years, but you’ll be a better writer by challenging yourself.

6.      Get online and know what’s going on in the market. If you’re reading this right now, you are already doing this point. I learn so much from other bloggers on what’s happening in the market as well as ideas to make myself a better writer.
 
What about you? What are smart ways that you make the most of your writing time?

My First Lucky13s Post!

Oct 17, 2012 | , | 2 Comments

After I announced my book deal, I joined The Lucky 13s which is a group of children and YA writers who are debuting in 2013. I’m really excited to be a part of a group of authors who are going through the same ups and downs as I am.

Today is my first post on The Lucky 13s blog. All week long on the Luckys we’re interviewing members from the Class of 2012 as well as talking about characterization. My post is about Creating Three Dimensional Characters. I hope you’ll stop by and say ‘hi’!

Facing Your Fears

Oct 14, 2012 | , , , , , | 12 Comments

Every day we as writers face fears.

Fear of rejection, fear of reviews, fear you’ll never land an agent or editor, fear that your next book won’t sell, fear your agent or editor won’t approve those edits.

The list is endless. But the only way to overcome those fears is to face them. While I was in Europe this summer, I filmed this short vlog with tips on how to face those fears.


Do you have any tips that you’d like to share?

Epic Book Deal Contest!

Oct 7, 2012 | , , , , , | 29 Comments

This weekend has been overwhelming. I’ve been blown away by the well-wishes on Facebook and Twitter, the emails and blog posts. It’s moments like these that all the years of late-night writing, tears over rejections and fighting self-doubt become worth it.

I’m so excited to celebrate my book deal with you that I’m giving away three prize packs. I know some of you are readers, some are writers and some are travelers, so I’ve created a pack for each of you.

Writer’s Pack

  • Critique of your first 10 pages by me

  • $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card- your choice!

  • $10 Starbuck’s gift card

  • Journal and writing pens

  • Query critique from my writing partner, Kate Fall, who has just opened her own editing business 

Reader’s Pack

  • Copies of my writing partner’s books: autographed copy of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis, I’M BORED illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi, and a preordered copy of PROPHECY by Ellen Oh 

  • A Samjokgo amulet (or some spell it as Samjogo)- this represents strength and was considered the most powerful symbol in Korea during the Koguryo Kingdom. This amulet has a big role in my book!

Traveler’s Pack

  • Traveler’s journal and writing pens

  • “Woman On the Go” traveler kit
  • Kindle or Nook (your choice!) versions of these great YA books: TEN by Gretchen McNeil and DEFIANCE by C.J Redwine.

Fill out the Rafflecopter form below to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Book Sold!

Oct 4, 2012 | , , , , | 44 Comments

Finally, finally I can scream from my rooftop that I’ve got a book deal! I’ve been keeping this little secret for a hundred years now. (Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration).

I am so pleased to announce that my young adult paranormal, GILDED, sold to Amazon Children’s Publishing (formally Marshall Cavendish)!

Here’s the blurb from Publisher’s Marketplace:

Christina Farley’s GILDED, in which a 16-year-old Korean-American girl with a black belt and a deadly proclivity with steel-tipped arrows discovers an ancient Korean god has been kidnapping the first-born daughters of her family for generations, to Miriam Frank at Amazon Children’s, in a nice deal, for publication in Fall 2013, by Jeff Ourvan at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency (world).

I know you’re waiting for all the gossip on how it happened. So…

Let’s rewind back to January, when on Martin Luther King’s birthday I got this stop-your-heart kind of email from Margery Cuyler, Publisher of Marshall Cavendish, saying she loved my book and was taking it to acquisitions. (Wow!!!!! She loved my book!!!!!!)

For the next week I was on pins and needles. Waiting, staring at my phone, waiting and staring at my phone some more. Then I got the call from Jeff, my agent. THE CALL. It was during my school day and I’m not allowed to answer my phone so he sent me a quick email first. Amazon Children’s had offered to buy my book. Squeal!

Somehow I got through the school day. I have no idea what I told my students or if I even taught the math lesson correctly. All I know is that I had this huge smile plastered across my face. As soon as I herded my students out the door, I was dialing Jeff to talk about all the juicy details.

 
Signing my contract
 

I am just so thankful to my agent who knew how to navigate through the whole submitting maze because the next few months after that were a bit insane. And he put up with my bizarre emails that looked something like this:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I know, who sends crazy emails like that?)

Yes, he’s totally a black belt in agenting.

I am thrilled to be working with my editor, Miriam Frank, who said she fell head-over-heels in love with GILDED (I can’t help but love her already).

Below you will find a short video I made that highlights my journey in writing this book. If you have read my blog over the years, these pictures will be familiar to you. Most of the pictures my husband or myself took while living in Korea.



Thanks as always to my crit buds who have endured emails and reading too many versions of this manuscript among others: Casey McCormick, Beth Revis, Larissa Hardesty, Ellen Oh and the amazing girls from the MiGs!

I hope you will stop by later this week to celebrate with me because I’m holding an EPIC contest giving away books, critiques, gift cards, and jewelry based on GILDED.

Contest Winners!

Sep 24, 2012 | | 6 Comments

I’m finally announcing my contest winners. I got a bit distracted last week with Open House at school, Grandparents Day and finishing my latest manuscript which I aptly named THE BEAST (that’s its nickname).

I am happy to say that my poor agent now has it and now he gets to face THE BEAST. *laughing deviously* Although, if anyone can deal with monsters or impossible manuscripts, it’s my agent.

ANYWAY! (yeah, my critique partners won’t let me ramble in my stories so I get to torture you here)

The winners are:

Kelly Polark for DEVIANTS by Maureen McGowen

and Stina Lindenblatt for I’M BORED by Michael Ian Black and illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

Email me your address. My email is farley dot christinaL at gmail dot com.

Woohoo! I still have my review and contest for SANCTUM by Sarah Fine coming up and a stack of autograph books that I’ve been meaning to do a giveaway with. Soon! 

Interview with Debbie Ohi and Giveaway!

Sep 12, 2012 | , , , , | 14 Comments


I am thrilled to have my critique partner from the MiGs, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, chatting with us here at Chocolate for Inspiration. I’ve known Debbie for a number of years and I’ve had the chance to read her middle grade and picture books. She is incredibly talented and I can’t wait to see all of other projects come out to the light of day over the next few years.

Now for the interview!
Me: There is so much fun and humor in your illustrations. What springboards you to come up with these creative ideas?

 

 

Debbie: Thanks, Christy! I draw a lot, just for the fun of it, and I think that helps a great deal. If I only drew for work-related projects, I suspect my illustrations would tighten up and lose much of the energy that people seem to like. So I try to sketch and doodle digitally and on paper as much as I can.

I admit it was an adjustment at first. Once I started working on I’M BORED, my doodling went way down at first because I figured I needed to put the time into workstuff instead…but then I found this had a negative influence on my workstuff. Once I started drawing for fun again on the side, things got better again.

Now I’m thinking I should starting doing more of the same for my writing as well. I used to keep a private daily journal, just for random thoughts, and I think I’ll start it up again.
Me: How do you look at a story from an illustrator’s perspective?

Debbie: That’s an interesting question, mainly because I’ve always looked at stories visually when I’m reading.

However, working on I’M BORED as well as my new picture book project for Simon & Schuster BFYR has certainly started me thinking a lot more about the picture book reader experience. There are so many aspiring picture book writers and illustrators out there who think that it’s just a matter of writing the story and then adding pictures.

It’s so much more, however. Writing picture books is HARD. Or rather, writing a good picture book that stands out in the marketplace and is appealing to young people (rather than grown-ups who are used to the classic type of picture books from the past) is hard.


Those who illustrate as well as write have a definite advantage when it comes to creating picture books because/we can’t help but think of how the text and illustrations can function as one unit AS we write the story. I’m always asking myself, “How can I show this in the illustrations instead of in the text? What can I add in the illustrations that will enhance the story?”

It’s a challenging but ultimately immensely satisfying process.


Me: And the most important question, what’s your favorite chocolate?

Debbie: Good quality dark chocolate.

A fellow chocolate lover! Yay! Thank you so much Debbie for hanging out with us!


Stalk Debbie at:

Twitter: @inkyelbows
Blog: DebbieOhi.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/inkygirl


Debbie and Simon and Schuster have also offered to give away a copy of I’M BORED! Just comment in the section below. Get an extra entry for tweeting, blogging or mentioning this interview on Facebook. Just let me know in the comments section!

Contest open internationally until Sept. 19th.

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