Book Day Giveaway! Day Five

Before we go all crazy for the final day of the giveaway, be sure to check out my query for CONTROL ISSUES on Matt's blog.

Yes, someone's going to publish my book. I can barely contain the tremors, trust me. Since you guys have been around for a lot of my journey, I'm giving away some Super-cali-fragilistic-expial-i-docious stuff. And if that's not epic, I don't know what is.

My book is a young adult dystopian novel in the vein of The Giver and The Hunger Games. Therefore, my giveaways are young adult/middle grade dystopians.

Each day this week there will be two prize packages available. The rules to enter are super-simple.
1. Go to The League of Extraordinary Writers blog. (I'm a co-author.) Follow.
2. Leave a comment ON THIS POST.
3. NEW RULE: You must follow Christina Lee's blog, as she's giving away a major amount of amazing jewelry!

Winners will be chosen from the comments of this post. I will check to make sure the winner has followed the League blog AND Christina's blog.

What can you win? What can you win? WHAT CAN YOU WIN??

THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES prize package:
1. A copy of The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (hardcover)
2. Matching bookmark created by Elana
3. A box of peanut butter patties -- Girl Scout Cookies!
4. $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble
5. Handmade, personalized (non-scribbled upon, I promise) notebook for all your artistic needs (6 x 9 inches)
6. Copy of From the Query to the Call OR a query critique by Elana
7. A $35 gift certificate for a piece of jewelry from Christina Lee (click here for her jewelry site)

THE MAZE RUNNER prize package:
1. A signed copy of The Maze Runner by James Dashner
2. Matching bookmark created by Elana
3. A box of peanut butter patties -- Girl Scout Cookies!
4. $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble
5. Handmade, personalized notebook for all your writing needs (6 x 9 inches)
6. Copy of From the Query to the Call OR a 10-page critique by Elana
7. A $40 gift certificate for a piece of jewelry from Christina Lee

Again, all you have to do to win is 1) Follow The League of Extraordinary Writers and 2) Leave a comment on THIS POST. (Tell me which prize package you'd like most. If possible, I'll give it to you.) and 3) Follow Christina Lee's blog.

This giveaway will remain open for 24 hours! That's it. You snooze, you lose. Winners will be announced at 3:00 PM tomorrow. Phew! This concludes the Book Deal giveaway extravaganza!!

Thanks for celebrating with me! And next week is going to feel so lamesauce. Le sigh.

Book Deal Giveaway! Day Four

TODAY'S CONTEST IS OPEN UNTIL NOON (mst).

And my query letter for CONTROL ISSUES is being broken down on Matt's blog today. Go. Follow him. Read. Comment. Whatever.

Yes, someone's going to publish my book. I can barely contain the tremors, trust me. Since you guys have been around for a lot of my journey, I'm giving away some mind-blowing loot (oh, man. *hangs head in shame*).

My book is a young adult dystopian novel in the vein of The Giver and The Hunger Games. Therefore, my giveaways are young adult/middle grade dystopians.

Each day this week there will be two prize packages available. The rules to enter are super-simple.
1. Go to The League of Extraordinary Writers blog. (I'm a co-author.) Follow.
2. Leave a comment ON THIS POST.

Winners will be chosen from the comments of this post. I will check to make sure the winner has followed the League blog.

What can you win? What can you win? WHAT CAN YOU WIN??

GONE prize package:
1. A copy of Gone by Michael Grant (paperback)
2. Matching bookmark created by Elana
3. A box of peanut butter patties -- Girl Scout Cookies!
4. $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble
5. Handmade, personalized notebook (sans scribbling *embarrassed* You would not believe what my kids do to their notebooks! Don't they know they're like, sacred artifacts or something?) for all your writing scribbling needs (6 x 9 inches)
6. Copy of From the Query to the Call OR a query critique by Elana

ENDER'S GAME prize package:
1. A copy of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (paperback)
2. Matching bookmark created by Elana
3. A box of peanut butter patties -- Girl Scout Cookies!
4. $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble
5. Handmade, personalized notebook for all your writing needs (6 x 9 inches)
6. Copy of From the Query to the Call OR a 10-page critique by Elana

Again, all you have to do to win is 1) Follow The League of Extraordinary Writers and 2) Leave a comment on THIS POST. (Tell me which prize package you'd like most. If possible, I'll give it to you.) and 3) Tell me my hair looks great. (Ha! We'll see who's reading carefully!)

This giveaway will remain open for 24 hours! That's it. You snooze, you lose. Because tomorrow, I have TWO more prize packages to give away! Winners will be announced at 1:00 PM tomorrow. And the new giveaway will go live at 2:00 PM.

Thanks for celebrating with me!

Book Deal Giveaway! Day Three

Yes, someone's going to publish my book. I can barely contain the tremors, trust me. Since you guys have been around for a lot of my journey, I'm giving away some cray-zy amay-zing stuff (okay, that's worse than epic. Srsly, people! We need another word for epic).

My book is a young adult dystopian novel in the vein of The Giver and The Hunger Games. Therefore, my giveaways are young adult/middle grade dystopians.

Each day this week there will be two prize packages available. The rules to enter are super-simple.
1. Go to The League of Extraordinary Writers blog. (I'm a co-author.) Follow.
2. Leave a comment ON THIS POST.

Winners will be chosen from the comments of this post. I will check to make sure the winner has followed the League blog.

What can you win? What can you win? WHAT CAN YOU WIN??

THE GIVER prize package:
1. A copy of The Giver by Lois Lowry (paperback)
2. Matching bookmark created by Elana
3. A box of peanut butter patties -- Girl Scout Cookies!
4. $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble
5. Sweet shoulder bag - fits a trade paperback!
6. Copy of From the Query to the Call OR a query critique by Elana

UGLIES prize package:
1. A copy of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (paperback)
2. Matching bookmark created by Elana
3. A box of peanut butter patties -- Girl Scout Cookies!
4. $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble
5. Handmade, personalized notebook for all your writing needs (6 x 9 inches)
6. Copy of From the Query to the Call OR a 10-page critique by Elana

Again, all you have to do to win is 1) Follow The League of Extraordinary Writers and 2) Leave a comment on THIS POST. (Tell me which prize package you'd like most. If possible, I'll give it to you.)

And I'm not expecting you to congratulate me over and over. I mean, I like it, but yeah. You can just tell me what you had for dinner or your favorite flavor of bubble gum or whatever. Or just a :) works. I swear I'm not groveling for congrats.

This giveaway will remain open for 24 hours! That's it. You snooze, you lose. Because tomorrow, I have TWO more prize packages to give away! Winners for Day 3 will be announced at 11:00 AM tomorrow. And the new giveaway will go live at Noon (all times MST).

Thanks for celebrating with me!

Book Deal Giveaway! Day Two

Yes, someone's going to publish my book. I can barely contain the tremors, trust me. Since you guys have been around for a lot of my journey, I'm giving away some epic stuff. At least I think it's epic.

My book is a young adult dystopian novel in the vein of The Giver and The Hunger Games. Therefore, my giveaways are young adult/middle grade dystopians.

Each day this week there will be two prize packages available. The rules to enter are super-simple.
1. Go to The League of Extraordinary Writers blog. (I'm a co-author.) Follow.
2. Leave a comment ON THIS POST.

Winners will be chosen from the comments of this post. I will check to make sure the winner has followed the League blog.

What can you win? What can you win? WHAT CAN YOU WIN??

THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX prize package:
1. A copy of The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson (paperback)
2. Matching bookmark created by Elana
3. A box of peanut butter patties -- Girl Scout Cookies!
4. $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble
5. Sweet shoulder bag - fits a trade paperback!
6. Copy of From the Query to the Call OR a query critique by Elana

FEED prize package:
1. A copy of Feed by M.T. Anderson (paperback)
2. Matching bookmark created by Elana
3. A box of thin mints -- Girl Scout Cookies!
4. $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble
5. Handmade, personalized notebook for all your writing needs (6 x 9 inches)
6. Copy of From the Query to the Call OR a 10-page critique by Elana

Again, all you have to do to win is 1) Follow The League of Extraordinary Writers and 2) Leave a comment on THIS POST. (Tell me which prize package you'd like most. If possible, I'll give it to you.)

This giveaway will remain open for 24 hours! That's it. You snooze, you lose. Because tomorrow, I have TWO more prize packages to give away! Winners will be announced at 9:00 AM tomorrow. And the new giveaway will go live at 10:00 AM.

Thanks for celebrating with me!

Book Deal Giveaway! Day One

Yes, someone's going to publish my book. I can barely contain the tremors, trust me. Since you guys have been around for a lot of my journey, I'm giving away some epic stuff. At least I think it's epic (and we really need to come up with another word for epic).

My book is a young adult dystopian novel in the vein of The Giver and The Hunger Games. Therefore, my giveaways are young adult/middle grade dystopians.

Each day this week there will be two prize packages available. The rules to enter are super-simple.
1. Go to The League of Extraordinary Writers blog. (I'm a co-author.) Follow. Oh, and there's a little giveaway going on over there too...
2. Leave a comment ON THIS POST. Contest is open internationally!

Winners will be chosen from the comments of this post. I will check to make sure the winner has followed the League blog.

What can you win? What can you win? WHAT CAN YOU WIN??

CANDOR prize package:
1. Candor by Pam Bachorz (hardcover)
2. Matching bookmark created by Elana
3. A box of peanut butter patties -- Girl Scout Cookies!
4. $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble
5. Sweet shoulder bag - fits a trade paperback!
6. Copy of From the Query to the Call OR a query critique by Elana

AMONG THE HIDDEN prize package:
1. Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix (paperback)
2. Matching bookmark created by Elana
3. A box of thin mints -- Girl Scout Cookies!
4. $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble
5. Handmade, personalized notebook for all your writing needs (6 x 9 inches)
6. Copy of From the Query to the Call OR a 10-page critique by Elana

Again, all you have to do to win is 1) Follow The League of Extraordinary Writers and 2) Leave a comment on THIS POST. (Tell me which prize package you'd like most. If possible, I'll give it to you.)

This giveaway will remain open for 24 hours! That's it. You snooze, you lose. Because tomorrow, I have TWO more prize packages to give away! Winners will be announced at 7:00 AM tomorrow. And the new giveaway will go live at 8:00 AM.

Thanks for celebrating with me!

One-Sentence Pitching

Okay, so the contest with Chris Richman is coming up. I know putting together one sentence that pitches your book is hard. Terrifying. Chocolate-worthy. Here're some posts that will hopefully help.

Sisters in Scribe did a great post here.

Mary Lindsey gave us some wisdom on the QT blog about the "elevator pitch."

Literary agent, Joanna Volpe, weighed in on pitches here.

Author Michelle McLean gave some insight on writing a logline (repubbed on the QT blog).

I blogged about the high-concept hook here.

Randy Ingermanson analyzes pitches here and here. (Thanks to Nicole for the linkage!)

And what would my pitch be for my YA dystopian novel, CONTROL ISSUES?

In a world where Thinkers brainwash the population and Rules are not meant to be broken, fifteen-year-old Violet does a hell of a job shattering them to pieces in her search for answers about her “dead” sister and not-so-missing father.

Hope something helps! What do you think? Can you craft a single sentence that describes your book? What do you say when people ask you what your book is about? That's your pitch. Make it into one sentence and get ready for the contest!

And so much for only blogging 3 days this week! Sheesh. At least I have nothing planned for Thursday...yet. *grins*

Dude, I See Jag Barque Every Wednesday

Special Notice. There are six people who have not claimed their prize from Monday, including an agent critique! So, uh, hello? Check this post, alert your friends, whatever. If prizes are not claimed by Sunday night, new winners will be chosen.

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Okay, this might not mean anything to you. But holy brown cows!!

See, Jag Barque is the male MC in my novel, Control Issues. I sort of have a love/hate relationship with the guy. I mean, I love him, but he sometimes makes my life difficult. I interviewed him here once. So if you read that, you'll see why we love/hate each other.

Anyway, Jag looks like this, but moodier and with bluer eyes. But dude, David Henrie has the total Jag vibe.

And every Wednesday, I have a certain third grade class. We have a program in our district called Latinos in Action and high school kids come and spend time with the Hispanic kids in our school. They read with them, help them in math, etc. So this third grade class comes on Wednesdays and one of these LIA's is my Jag Barque!

If Jag were Hispanic and had dark eyes instead of blue. But dude, everything else is exactly the same.

I kid you not.

And I find myself wanting to ask him how the Resistance is going and why he always. has. to. be. right. and where he's been hiding these last few months.

Of course I don't. Instead I stare like a freak until the LIA looks my way and then I pretend like I'm trying to figure out what 12 x 7 is. But I totally already know it's 84 because I have a math minor and am a freak about numbers.

So yeah.

Have you ever seen your characters in the flesh? What did you do? My advice? Pretend to do difficult math problems so you won't stare too long.

Query Letter Writing - The Dreaded Middle

First we interrupt this blog to say "Holy brown cows, Batman!! Over 100 comments yesterday?"

There will be prizes for that. Like 100 prizes, don't you think? There's a couple problems with this idea. 1. I'm not what you would call a millionaire. 2. What could I give away to say I love you with all my heart without landing me in the poor house? Thoughts? Cuz you guys so deserve something.

And onto the real post for today.

Okay, so we've gone over the first and last sentence. The first and last paragraphs. Now all you need to do is flesh out the middle.

This is where some of you wedge yourself in a swamp, so take heed. I mean, nobody wants more fat in their middle, right? Right.

Some tips to keep your query lean and mean.

1. Limit the number of characters you name. I think a good number is 1-2 more, if necessary. You've got your MC, and probably a secondary MC. I name both of those in mine. I might or might not name the villain and that's it. We don't need the full cast, it simply takes up too much room and weighs us down with unneeded proper nouns.

2. Get to the conflict and the consequence. Don't bog us down in the unnecessary. We don't need to know everything in the query. Just the bare bones, the main plot to the major consequence (which is why I recommend writing the query before the book). So stick with that.

Use a sentence or two for the setup. Then lay out the major conflict. Note how I said major. What does your MC have to lose? Give me that, and really give it to me.

Then answer: What happens if your MC doesn't overcome the conflict? That's called a consequence. Leave me hanging off a cliff, salivating to read more. Oh yeah. Like that. (Some of you don't ever get to the consequence. It's omitted for some reason. What that reason is, I have no idea. You've got to lay out the consequence, okay? Okay.)

3. I swear I had three bullet points when I was in the shower, but now I can't think of it. Like, at all. Dangitall.

Here's my full query blurb (181 words - Janet Reid would be proud). I made the middle bold.

In a world where Thinkers brainwash the population and Rules are not meant to be broken, fifteen-year-old Violet Schoenfeld does a hell of a job shattering them to pieces.

After committing her eighth crime (walking in the park after dark with a boy, gasp!), Vi is taken to the Green, a group of Thinkers who control the Goodgrounds. She’s found unrehabilitatable (yeah, she doesn’t think it’s a word either) and exiled to the Badlands—until she demonstrates her brainwashing abilities. That earns her a one-way trip to appear before the Association of Directors.

Yeah, right. Like that’s gonna happen. She busts out of prison with sexy Bad boy Jag Barque, who also has no intention of fulfilling his lame sentence.

Dodging Greenies and hovercopters, dealing with absent-father issues, and coming to terms with feelings for an ex-boyfriend—and Jag as a possible new one—leave Vi little time for much else. Which is too damn bad, because she’s more important than she realizes. When secrets about her “dead” sister and not-so-missing father hit the fan, Vi must make a choice: control or be controlled.

Next week: Capturing the voice in your query. Seriously, if you can craft a good first and last sentence, nail your opening and closing paragraphs, and keep the middle slim, all you need is the voice and your query will be a winner!

They're Tagging Me Right Now

Final post! Check this post for cheating links. The questions are coming tomorrow!!

21) Where do you get your ideas for your characters?

Real life.


22)Do you ever write based on your dreams?

I deprive myself of sleep to the extent that I don’t remember any of my dreams.


23) Do you favor happy endings?

No way.


24) Are you concerned with spelling and grammar as you write?

Spelling, yes. Grammar – uh, what’s grammar?


25) Does music help you write?

“Help” isn’t the right word. I listen to music all the time. Writing, not writing, revising, editing, farming, cooking, cleaning, all of it. Silence smothers me. Except while sleeping, then if it's not silent, holy brown cows. Watch out. Dragon awakening.


26) Quote something you've written. Whatever pops in your head.

“What’s wrong with him?”
“How would I know?” I asked. “Do I look like a doctor?”
~Vi in CONTROL ISSUES


And thus ends the tag madness. Oh. My. Heck. I just realized something! I have Tags in my book! And they're capitalized and very, very Bad. But now I have a title for this post. It's a line from my book. *grin*

Ahem. Like you care. But it was a brainwave for me.

Anyway, questions up tomorrow. Comments today get you an extra entry.

Happy New Year's Eve!!

Hey, You Left the Tag On...

Have no idea what I'm barking about? Read yesterday's post.

On to part two!

8) How often do you get writer's block?

Every freaking day.


9) Write fan fiction?

I had to go look it up. So no.


10) Do you type or write by hand?

Both. I’ve written entire novels by hand. I do almost all of my editing/revising by hand. But I've written like 12 novels in two years. And no one does that by hand, so it's a fair assessment to say I do a lot of typing too.


11) Do you save everything you write?

Yes. *nervously looks around* You mean people don't?


12) Do you ever go back to an idea after you've abandoned it?

Yes. And no. Depends on how far I made it before the abandonment. And if my characters will forgive me long enough for me to start over. ;-)


13)What's your favorite thing you've ever written?

Well, I have this scene in CONTROL ISSUES where Vi controls Jag without any brainwashing abilities… It’s pretty kewl.


***This is part two in a four-day contest. Questions coming on Friday! Remember that commenting on any post this week adds an entry to the pool (if you get the answers right. But let's face it people, who's NOT going to get the answers right?? I'm not like the Mariana Trench or anything).

Happy Tuesday!

Red Tag Contest

Okay, so I was tagged by the fabulous Danyelle.

But I hate long posts. I hate reading them, and I hate writing them. And that tag thingy has like 26 questions! So, just because I'm the queen around here, I'm breaking it up into four posts.

And taking it a step further. That's right, we're talking contest.

I'm going to give you all the answers. Or at least I have in past posts. And on Friday, I'm going to ask a few choice questions. Like one of those Facebook quizzes: "How well do you know Elana Johnson?"

Check this page on my website for cheats. And you might want to skim some of my latest Facebook statuses. (Is statuses a word? Or is it statusi? Hmm...)

And let's start the taggage!

1)What's the last thing you wrote? What's the first thing you wrote that you still have?

The last thing I wrote is the beginning of a new novel. 1500 words in, and I’m not feeling like hitting delete. A small miracle.

The first thing I wrote is a book I still have on my hard drive. I started rewriting it from blank pages in September, but had to stop to revise.


2) Write poetry?

Absolutely not.


3)Angsty poetry?

Negative.


4)Favorite genre of writing?

YA of all kinds, but absolute fave is dystopian.


5)Most annoying character you've ever created?

Annoying character? I love all my characters! But probably Thane. He’s more in the category of Evil with a capital E, though. Not necessarily annoying. But he does annoy…

Thane.


6) Best plot you've ever created?

Well, the one for CONTROL ISSUES is pretty cool, I think… I mean, what’s better than breaking through a brainwashing barrier and telling the Thinkers to get stuffed?


7) Coolest plot twist you've ever created?

Well, if I told you I’d have to kill you. *wink, wink*


Okay, I hope you're taking notes! Friday will be the day with all the questions.

And oh! The prize? Besides complete bragging rights and the title of Elana Johnson Know-It-All (Do you think Russell would pay ten grand for that title??), you could earn yourself a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com.

How? Well, you gotta answer the questions right on Friday. But every comment will earn you another entry. If you wanna follow the blog or tweet or blog about it or friend me on Facebook, we'll just call those added bonuses. I'm nowhere bright enough to keep track of those kind of entries. Hey... that could be a question...

*grins*

Who Tells Your Story?

Okay, so this past week I had the chance to go to a bookstore. This shouldn't be, like, a planned outing, but in our household it totally is. See, my hubby and I are both teachers and we both adore books. And we're poor--mostly because of spending too much money on books. So a trip to an actual bookstore is a rare activity just on principle alone.

I always carry a notebook with me, and this day at the bookstore was no different. I usually jot down titles I want so I can research them more or put them on hold at the library or whatever.

This particular trip, however, something struck me. Who's telling the story? Who tells the story has always interested me, so much that I've read over my notes from writing conferences on this very subject.

I'm very comfortable writing in first person (three novels done in first person), and I absolutely adore present tense (one in third person, present tense). But I'm trying to stretch myself both as a reader and a writer. Well, maybe not too much stretchage. I still pretty much only read (and write) YA paranormal / fantasty / science fiction.

So here are the novels I was considering and I jotted down who's telling the story. I'm calling this market research instead of Elana-is-the-biggest-geek-on-the-planet. So stick with that, okay?

1. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan: First person / present

2. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare: Third person / past (multiple narrators)

3. The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King: Third person / past

4. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson: First person / present

5. I.Q. by Roland Smith: First person / past

6. SilverFin by Charlie Higson: Third person / past

7. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: First person / present

8. Need by Carrie Jones: First person / present

9. The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld: First person / present

10. Feed by M.T. Anderson: First person / past and present (Can I just say that I l-o-v-e this approach? I can, cuz it's my blog. And this is what I do in Control Issues. Looove it. ETA: And you can see what I mean by this by clicking here. Not a link clicker? Well, that's the announcement saying I won a runner-up prize in MSFV's secret agent contest! Then you can click on mine and read the first 250 words that [literary agent] Ms. Kate Schafer Testerman liked enough to request to see the first five chapters! It's now a Squeeeee! day!)


Market Research Findings:

• Out of these ten YA novels, which I know is an extremely small sample size, 7 of them are written in first person, 3 in third person. That's a wow-moment right there.
  
  
• 5 (and part of a sixth) of them are written in present tense. Hmm...is this a new trend? I can think of a few other books that are present tense (A Great and Terrible Beauty, for one) or first person (The Hollow).
  
  
• I have actually only read 1 1/2 of these books, I merely flipped them open and read the first page or so to see who was telling the story. My husband sets a time limit when we go to the bookstore. No, really. He does.

So, since my "market research" I'm seriously considering who's going to tell my next story. I'm leaning toward a first person / present tense story, but that won't work with the sequel to Control Issues. So I may be going all chick lit on you, which sort of seems to lend itself to first person / present tense. Who knows?

But here is a question you should know the answer to: Who tells your story? How do they do it? Why did you choose them?

Teaser Tuesday

Okay, so it's no secret that I'm a serial blog reader. And I've seen some Teaser Tuesdays out there. So I decided, what the heck? What's one more bandwagon? I'm already on like, fifty, why not one more?

So here goes. Teaser Tuesday is where you post a little snippet of your writing as a teaser...on Tuesday. Yeah, I love the alliteration thing. Also, I'm not saying I'm gonna do this every week, cuz frankly I'd run out of really teasy stuff to post, but I might give it a go for a little while.

Here goes. This is from Control Issues.

I exited to muddy ground. My sneakers absorbed a lot of water and gunk, making my feet heavy and running difficult. I slogged through the swampy area to the street, which was deserted. The sky lay silent and silver, peaceful in the early morning.

After a few turns down narrow alleys, I stopped and pulled my shoes off. Running barefoot would be faster than trying to run with muddy bricks on my feet.

The farther away from the Institute we got, the softer the alarm became. Then it stopped completely. I dodged behind Jag in the shadows of buildings, expecting the hum of a hovercopter, an electronic voice or a beam of red light to freeze me in place.

Nothing happened.

Jag wove north toward the Centrals. By the time we reached the border of the Southern Rim, my breath came in gasps and my back hurt. I mean, I’m a water girl, not an athlete.

The air pressed silently around me. Surely they wouldn’t just let us run away. Would they? I ran my finger along my wrist bone, and the tiny knot jutted out like a boulder.

A guard station and a fifteen-foot fence separated us from the field in the Centrals, and only Jag had an ID card. We approached cautiously, Jag holding me back with his arm. Slightly annoyed that he felt like he needed to protect me when I was the one who busted us out, I pushed up close to him.

“Do you have a death wish?” he whispered.

“Do you? Stop pushing me or I’ll kill you.”

“Vi.” He turned toward me. “You’re impossible.” His eyes danced with that sexy amusement again.

My irritation flared. “Thanks.” I stepped in front of him and peeked around the corner of the building next to the guard station. I prayed it was empty and we’d be able to walk through undetected. He joined me, chuckling.

“Stop laughing at me,” I said. “It’s annoying.”

That only made him laugh harder, and though he was quiet, his whole body shook next to mine. Our shoulders touched and after a minute, he put his arm around my waist.

If we weren’t on the run for our lives, if I wasn’t Tagged and worried about how we were going to trek all the way across the Goodgrounds to the Badlands, I might have been terrified at the thought of kissing him. His body heat penetrated the thin prison clothes, and I placed one hand on his chest.

So there you have it. Teaser Tuesday. Maybe you should post one of your own...then leave me a comment here so I can read it. You'd really be helping me out today. It's my Spring Break and I have oodles of time to read major bloggage.

What's With the Letter A?

So, onward and upward to female main character names. I read somewhere, and I can't remember where, that agents were sick of seeing female protags with a name that started with A. Yeah, in the one book I had written at the time, my MC was named Annie.

Le sigh.

I actually don't mind this. But since my post on male names with the letter K, I've been paying more attention to names in everything I read. Queries, synop's, books, manuscripts, whatev. I read a lot of stuff. And you know what? I've noticed a lot of Seth's. As the bad boy. One of my friends (Christine Fonseca) has a Seth in her WiP. I think she told me his name means something about darkness or choas or something. I'm sure she'll set me straight, and I'm too lazy to research it myself. I shudder just typing that R-word. *shudder*

But I haven't noticed that many A-names for girls. Maybe I'm just reading the wrong books, I don't know. One of my pals, Jessica Verday, author of The Hollow (which I get to read soon! Woot!) has named her MC Abbey. So there's an A. Oh, and Jenn, a real-life gal in my crit group just wrote a synop about a girl named Ava. There's two.

For me? I seem to choose pretty popular names. I wrote a book last winter with a Claire. That seemed to be a pretty popular name at the time. Lots of authors had Claire's. Sidenote: I need an eclair to get me through this week.

And of course, I have Vi, my Rule-breaking Good girl in Control Issues. And Gabby, my heroine-who-sometimes-pretends-to-be-the-hero.

Who have you got? There's major chartage in my future.

Main Character Names, Take Two

As promised, here are the results of last week's male main character survey. At the time, I really didn't think it would turn into a survey, but it so did. And I added my male MC names, and that totally skewed the results. Yeah, the J's just skyrocketed. Ahem. Obviously, that post should have been entitled, "What's With the Letter J?" instead of "What's With the Letter K?" (Click on that title if you have no idea what I'm talking about. Cuz it was great fun.)

So this first chart is the names with my MC names. (Jon, Jared, Jess, Jesse, Jarvis, Jake, Jag and Josh included. Holy crap. Just looking at that makes my eyes cross. Why do I write so many J names? Because my last name is Johnson? J's are made of kewl? They're funner to write by hand? Which of these are working for you??) Some of you left female names, which was great and all, but I only included the boys.


And the second chart is without my main characters. Hey, I had a Hunter, an Adam and Ames, a Gordon (the only G in the above chart. Ha), a Zenn, a Miller, a Cal, a Ty and many others I'm sure I'm forgetting. But here's the one without the barrage of J-names from yours truly.

Either way, the results are interesting. Quite a large clumping in the J-N range, just as I predicted. Hey, maybe I missed my calling in life as a statistician. I did complete a brief secretarial stint in the Stats Department in college. Anyway, after the middle letters, it seems a lot of us go for names that begin with letters at the beginning of the alphabet. Z had a nice showing, as did the popular Wheel of Fortune letters R, S and T.

So that leaves me wondering why. Kat asked this question on her blog last week. But it's a good one, so here goes. How do you choose the names for your characters?

I left her a comment, but I'll repeat it here. Most of the time I choose a name because it just fits, or I want to use a nickname. In my NaNo novel I chose Gabby (I know, I know, it's a girl's name, chillax) because I wanted to use the male name Gabe. And Gabby has to pretend to be a guy...so yeah. Her real name is Gabriella. She goes by Gabby when she's a girl (well, she's always a girl) and Gabe when she's pretending to be a boy. Are you confused yet? Yeah, me too, maybe that's why I haven't finished this novel yet.

In Control Issues, a futuristic science fiction novel, I wanted a funky male name. Heck, I wanted funky names for everyone. I named a girl Tyson, my male MC Jag, his brother Pace and the "other boyfriend" Zenn. In the sequel to that novel, which I tinkered with last summer, I watched American Gladiators to find kewl names. I had to look since it's been so long, but I found Gill, Nash, Fret, Van, Viggo and Xan.

And Jet.

Holey Swiss cheese.

Another J-name.

Smack me. Smack me hard.

Why I Listen to my Novel - Out Loud

Okay, so I was reading through my manuscript after running the spell checker. I wear headphones and listen to the computer read in that horrible robot-jerky voice as I follow along. This is why I do this, even though it takes a lot of time. And I want to cut off my ears like Van Gogh did. Those computer voices just aren't conducive for listening to 85,000 words. Seriously.

"A five-year-old Tyson and a three-year-old me played in the water, dipping our feet and slashing each other."

LOL! That should be "...sPlashing each other."


"Thy blood stained the cobbled stones."

Um, that should be "ThE blood..." Not only did it slip into first person, but all of a sudden I was speaking in this formal voice. "Thy mother has spokeneth. Go cleaneth your roometh."


"As the feeling came back into my legs and feet, I torched a long coat hanging in the corner of the closet."

Man, this girl has some serious anger issues. Hee, hee. That should be "...I toUched a long coat..."

So you see, the spell checker can't find everything. And that robotic voice is good for something. Maybe.

Writing A Query Letter - Part Three: The Conflict

So you've hooked and setup up your query letter. Now to the part that everyone wants to read—the conflict. Every novel needs it. In fact, the more conflict, the better. In the query letter, you want to highlight the main conflict, not every single one in every single chapter. You can't even do that in the synopsis, so don't try.

Main conflict [meyn kon-flikt]: The central thing that prevents the character from getting what they want.

If you didn't setup what the character wants in the setup, you can do it during the conflict. For example, here are my examples from the past couple of days.

Hook: Sixteen-year-old Annie Jenkins must control the magic to balance the realm—it's too bad her unknown abilities are hidden beneath her inhalant addiction.

Setup: Whenever she's high, Annie has vivid visions of a death she can't remember and a boy she's never met. When she meets Jonathan Clarke, the ghostly boy from her hallucinations, she realizes her drug use has masked the abilities she's inherited from her magic-keeping mother. Wielding magic isn't everything it's cracked up to be; Annie discovers her newfound powers can't cure her terminally ill mother.

So the next paragraph is the conflict.

Annie learns she has the rare power to bring immortal beings (Shadows) living in another realm back into the human world. Jon has been searching for someone with Annie’s Mirror power for a century. (Both of these sentences are still setting up the conflict.) He's desperate for her to restart his heart so he can become human again, but his Reflection can't be completed until she balances the magic. (Jon wants to be human, but…) Their problems double when she learns there are evil Shadows who plan to kill her and take control of the realm. (Oh, crap.) One of Jon's old friends is leading the resistance and attempts to recruit him, while Annie discovers one of her friends is really working against her. (What? A friend that's really an enemy? That can't be good…)

I've actually included a sentence for Jon, one for Annie, and one for both of them. Jon's main conflict is that he wants a beating heart, and he can't get it until Annie balances the magic in his realm. Annie's main conflict is that she could die at the hands of any Shadow (including Jon's) at any time—oh, and don't forget about balancing the magic. Their main conflict together is they both have friends who aren't really their friends—and who would do anything to destroy them. No biggie, right? It took me 106 words to explain the conflict. Five sentences (and two of those were still setup). Find the main conflict and highlight that. Trust me, your query will thank you. Agents will thank you. Readers who read the blurb on the back of your book will thank you.

Now it's your turn. Here's the hook, setup, and conflict from the second novel I've been highlighting this week. Can you identify the main conflict for Vi?

Hook: In a world where Thinkers control the population and the Rules are not meant to be broken, fifteen-year-old Vivian Schoenfeld does a spectacular job of shattering them to pieces.

Setup: Refusing to listen to the Tapes, stealing an old ID card, and walking in the park after dark with a boy land Vi in prison. The Good are usually separated from the Bad, but Vi finds herself sharing a cell with beautiful Bad boy, Jag Barque.

Conflict:

Because Jag and Vi are Free-Thinkers, they're banished to the Badlands, a place Vi fears but has always wanted to go. Secrets about her missing father and dead sister, combined with who—or what—she really is, lead her down a road full of difficult decisions. Falling for Jag further complicates Vi's life as she faces her new role, one she's always despised—being in Control.

I admit, this one is much harder—even for me, and I wrote the darned thing. What do you think? What's the main conflict?

Your job: No novel is complete without conflict. What's yours? Can you clearly identify it for your main character in one sentence? Pull your conflict section out of your query letter and make sure it clearly explains the main conflict for your novel.

Get ready for the final element of The Query Letter – The Consequence – tomorrow. Did you miss the first two installments? Click here for The Hook, and here for The Setup.

Writing A Query Letter - Part Two: The Setup

Okay, once you've hooked the agent to read your whole query letter, you've got to deliver. You can't just have a hook and then let everything else slide. Following the hook, you need to get to the problem. This requires a little bit of setup. Yesterday, you may have noticed that I included the age of the protag in my hooks. Of course I specify my genre, but the agent knows right away which age group it is. Little details like that contribute to the setup in your query even if they're not in the setup portion.

In the setup, you have a few goals:
1. Provide a few details about who your main character is. You've hooked the agent to find out more about your main character, so give them what they want.

2. World-building information if pertinent. For fantasy and science fiction, a little taste of the world would go in the setup section of the query. For mystery, horror, thriller or other genres, including the setting here wouldn't be a bad idea.

3. The catalyst that moves the main character into the conflict (tomorrow's post).

Let's look at this hook I posted yesterday. Sixteen-year-old Annie Jenkins must control the magic to balance the realm—it's too bad her unknown abilities are hidden beneath her inhalant addiction.

Here's the paragraph right after it—the setup.

Whenever she's high, Annie has vivid visions of a death she can't remember and a guy she's never met. (details) When she meets Jonathan Clarke, the ghostly boy from her hallucinations, she realizes her drug use has masked the abilities she's inherited from her magic-keeping mother. (Details = Annie inherits magic. World-building = magic-keeping mother, hmm...) Wielding magic isn't everything it's cracked up to be; Annie discovers her newfound powers can't cure her terminally ill mother. (More details = Annie's mom is sick. World-building = magic can't fix everything. Catalyst for next para on the conflict = magic can't fix everything, Annie's powers are new and she can't do what she wants with them.)

This setup paragraph is three sentences, only 65 words. But (I think, I hope, I pray) it tells more about Annie, more about the magic, and drives the agent toward the main conflict in the story. That's what you want your setup section of the query letter to do. Don't bog us down in too many details. Don't introduce your entire cast of secondary characters. Don't try to impress with sentences that are 65 words long by themselves. Just lay it out for us. Remember, you want to get to the conflict. Think of the setup as a bridge from the sharp hook to the cliffhanger conflict.

Okay, your turn. Using this hook I posted yesterday and the setup paragraph below, can you tell if I've met the goals for the setup paragraph?

Hook: In a world where Thinkers control the population and the Rules are not meant to be broken, fifteen-year-old Violet Schoenfeld does a spectacular job of shattering them to pieces.

Setup:

Refusing to listen to the Tapes, stealing an old ID card, and walking in the park after dark with a boy land Vi in prison. The Good are usually separated from the Bad, but Vi finds herself sharing a cell with beautiful Bad boy, Jag Barque.

In these two sentences (47 words) can you find the details? Can you identify where more is revealed about the world Vi lives in? What's the catalyst that will propel the agent forward to the conflict?

Now these examples might not be stellar. Remember, they're just my query letters, and I'm no expert. The first one has seen some good requests. The second hasn't been queried yet.

Your job: go examine your setup paragraph. Does it reveal details, build your world (or identify the setting), and propel you toward the conflict? Can't even find it? Um, Houston you have a problem. You need to be able to clearly identify your setup so you can know if you're, well, setting up your conflict.

Didn't see part one of Writing the Query Letter – The Hook? Click here to see it. Watch for the next section, Writing the Query Letter – The Conflict, tomorrow.

Writing A Query Letter - Part One: The Hook

This series of articles was first published on the QueryTracker blog. I wrote them, so I'm going to post them here as well.

Okay, people. We all know that to secure a literary agent, you need to write a stellar query letter. You can get feedback at various writerly sites, but none better than the QueryTracker forum. People there are nice, honest, and want to see you succeed.

I know, I know. There are literally hundreds of websites where you can go to find out how to write a query letter. But, um, the fact is, you don't want just a query letter. You want a great query letter—one that sets yours above the others.

I know, I know, I know. There are literary agents who have blogged on how to craft these suckers. They're right. They have good advice. I'm no literary agent, nor an expert, but I did take a class at a conference on writing a killer query. We had to submit our letters before the class and the published author teaching the class reviewed them. Mine wasn't like, awesome or anything. But it did, ahem, win. I didn't get a publishing contract or even a bar of chocolate. I did get a round of applause for my hook and several nods from industry people. You know the kind. The nod of approval, large initial bend with several smaller nods of the head. One editor said she'd definitely like to read my book from the query letter. She did. I got rejected. Life goes on.

So I'm going to share what I learned in the class. It made my query better. The instructor taught that there are four parts to an effective query. I'm only going to talk about the first one today, and we'll visit the other parts soon.

Part One - The Hook

You need a good hook. Scratch that. You need a phenomenal hook. Something that really grabs the reader and says, "Read this! It's gonna be good! Then request my full!" In my opinion, the hook should do two things. 1. Grab the reader (aka the agent) and propel them through the whole letter. 2. Sum up the main plot of the novel.

Here are some I've used/written:

Jonathan Clarke has everything a seventeen-year-old boy could want—except for a beating heart.

This screams fantasy of some kind. At least to me. Or maybe that screaming in my head isn't supposed to be there…Anyway, I had a couple of full requests using that hook. I think it's quite grabby and it does tell the main plot, the driving force behind much of the novel. This dude, Jon, he really wants a beating heart and you better read to find out how/when/if he gets one.

Then I rewrote the book, which of course changed the main plot. So the hook changed to this:

Sixteen-year-old Annie Jenkins must control the magic to balance the realm—it's too bad her unknown abilities are hidden beneath her inhalant addiction.

I received a few more full requests—and a few more rejections. Apparently I can write a pretty good query letter, but not a good novel. Oh, and I'm a lover of the em-dash, what can I say? But this hook does, again, tell the main plot. All in 23 words. (I know, mine are kinda long.)

Sometimes the hook can be a little longer, like this one I wrote for a different novel:

In a world where Thinkers control the population and the Rules are not meant to be broken, fifteen-year-old Violet Schoenfeld does a spectacular job of shattering them to pieces. (29 words, but no em-dash! Go me!)

This hook A) Hopefully propels you to read the rest of the letter, and B) tells the main plot of the novel. That's what you want your hook to do.

I don't think there's one right way to write the hook, but lots of wrong ways. The point is, you need a hook. A good one. A strong one. A sharp one.

Your job: get out your whetstone and sharpen those hooks!

Look for part two of Writing the Query Letter - The Setup tomorrow.