GYDO: Gina Rosati

Gina Rosati, Author of Auracle (2012)

Auracle’s Dead Darlings

Gina Rosati

Whether it was William Faulkner, who was quoted as saying, “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” or Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch saying, “Murder your darlings,” the bottom line is that edits are a bloody business.

In her phenomenal book about writing and life, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott refers to the trouble with first drafts … the majority of writers, even the seasoned professionals, do not write a marketable product the first time around. There must be edits, and sometimes tough decisions must be made.

I started writing Auracle based on the idea, “what if a girl could astrally project and witnessed an accidental death, then the victim took over the girl’s body before she returned.” scribble*scribble*scribble = 100+ pages of backstory  + painstaking description of every little sight, smell, sound, taste, feeling. I love fairies and anything should be possible in the astral realm, so I stuck in some fairies and gnomes, elves, ghosts, mermaids, and hey, what about a talking tree! A tree spirit living in a willow tree can explain all the rules of the astral realm to Anna! I’ll name him Trax, because … it sounds good to me! And let’s show how hot the hot guy, Rei, is by having him clean out a fish tank … shirtless! Yeah, baby! In addition to all that, I believe my first draft was a world record contender for the overuse of modifiers, exclamation points, and ellipses, and I made sure to cram as many kissing scenes as possible into these 300 pages. We can never have too many kissing scenes!

Okay then.

I was blessed to find an agent who liked my writing voice and saw potential in the story, but she told me that after the first hundred pages, the story sagged. Would I consider rewriting the last 2/3 of the book? I took a deep breath, cut 200 pages, pasted them in my ‘Maybe Later But Probably Not’ file, and rewrote.

Nothing is ever wasted. Every word you write strengthens your writing skills. After many changes, Auracle sold to a wonderful editor who really connected with the characters and story. My editor sent me a thoughtful, thorough ten page editorial letter, and I knew lots of work was in front of me.

Much of the backstory and detail was consolidated so the beginning is tighter, leading us to the action much quicker.  Modifiers were traded for stronger nouns and verbs, although I should still be part of a 12 Step Program for Ellipsis and Exclamation Points Anonymous. What can I say … I’m very excitable!

That was the easy part. My editor then made the very wise suggestion that the fantasy elements were cluttering up the paranormal element of astral projection. Fairies, gnomes, ghosts, mermaids, elves … exit, stage left. The darling I had the most difficulty killing was Trax, the wise old willow tree who was a father figure to Anna. My editor pointed out that Trax was a device who explained things about the astral realm that our hero, Anna, should be figuring out for herself. I saw my editor’s point, but here is why I was reluctant to let Trax go ~

 

Research!

Which leads us to the question, what is a darling and why do we kill them? A darling is something that a writer is really attached to, something that we think is utterly brilliant and creative and nobody has ever written anything this epic before. It’s something we love so much, we want to tattoo it to our wrist. Which is exactly why it must die – because we love it so, we’ve lost the ability to be objective about it. The willow tree in Auracle still has some personality, and as much as I still love my tattoo, when I go back and read the earlier drafts of Auracle with Trax chuckling and dispensing advice like an arboreal Dr. Phil, I want to hug my editor and thank her for saving me from myself!



Auracle’s Blurb

16 year old Anna Rogan has a secret she’s only shared with her best friend, Rei; she can astrally project out of her body, allowing her spirit to explore the world and the far reaches of the universe. When there’s a fatal accident and her classmate Taylor takes over Anna’s body, what was an exhilarating distraction from her repressive home life threatens to become a permanent state. Faced with a future trapped in another dimension, Anna turns to Rei for help. Now the two of them must find a way to get Anna back into her body and stop Taylor from accusing an innocent friend of murder. Together Anna and Rei form a plan but it doesn’t take into account the deeper feelings that are beginning to grow between them. Short Author Bio

Gina Rosati lives in southern New Hampshire with her husband, two teenage children and two chubby guinea pigs. When she's not writing or reading, she volunteers at her local middle school library, beads, crochets and eats way too much candy.

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GYDO: Tiffany Schmidt (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!)

Tiffan Schmidt, Author of Send me a Sign (2012)

Books and Babies and BIRTHDAYS

It’s my birthday today (cupcakes for everyone!). I officially turned 32 at some early o’clock.

But I want to write about my 30^th birthday—and since it’s MY day, you should let me. Or, rather, I want to write about the months leading up to my 30^th birthday.

Here’s a fact about me: I like plans. I make lists.*

I had a list entitled: THINGS TO ACCOMPLISH BEFORE 30.

It was a list I made sometime after college and before the big three-oh.  It was full of gems like:

Learn to speak Italian—*brushes dust off Rosetta Stone software*

Run a marathon — *thinks fondly of the six months I spent in PT*

Buy a house —*Oh, this one we DID do! Remind me to send in my mortgage check*

But there were two incomplete items that broke my heart. They were the first things on the list:

1)     Have children!

2)     Publish first novel!

Neither of these is an over-night accomplishment. Since I’d paid attention in middle school health class, nine months before September 10, 2010, I was pretty darn sure that the first one wasn’t going to happen.  I was feeling bleak about the second one too.

In that fun way that my mind works, I began to fixate on these two things: Books & Babies. Books & Babies. My thoughts bounced between the two topics like some horribly depressing game of ping-pong.

I convinced myself that if I didn’t meet my deadline for the dreams, they were never going to happen. I let myself feel that I’d failed. That I was a failure. And since I was about to turn THIRTY! I started to believe that I was about to be an OLD failure.**

It was STUPID. I fully admit this. *** My ability to write wasn’t going to evaporate when the digit at the front of my age changed from two to three, and neither was my ability to be a mother. I’d made the deadlines for my dreams, and I could change them.

So I did.  *Feel free to cue triumphant music or mentally insert some .gif of great-achievement using your preferred Olympian*

I still wanted books & babies—that was never going to change—but I eliminated the expiration date. They became LIFE goals. The only deadline was the ultimate DEADline.

And on my thirtieth birthday I blew out my candles without even a thought to my long-lost list.

It’s possible the wish I made had something to do with SEND ME A SIGN, which was about to go on sub—and would sell that spring when I was 30 and a half. And that will FINALLY be in bookstores in three weeks!**** But I might be wrong. It’s probably more likely that my candle-wish had something to do with my five-months gigantic twin belly and for a safe arrival of The Schmidtlets who are currently tearing around my house like the wild 22-month-old imps they are.

Today’s lesson: Don’t give your dreams a deadline.

Also, cake is delicious… and frosting is surprisingly difficult to remove from a dog’s fur. (Thank you, Schmidtlets!)

* I like to pretend my chaos is CONTROLLED chaos. Plans & lists help with this illusion.

**Thirty is not old. Neither is 32. I’ll let you know when I reach OLD, but I don’t expect it to happen for a good long time.

*** Hello, Hindsight! Lookin’ good!

****Actually, three weeks & one day… Yes, I HAVE had a countdown on my wall for the past few months.

Send Me a Sign Blurb

Mia’s used to being the perfect teenager: pretty, popular, smart, caring. But that was before she was diagnosed with leukemia. Now, her father has become Captain Cancer Facts and her mother is obsessed with maintaining Mia’s image. Her maybe-more-than-a-friend, Gyver, is judging her decision not to tell the other cheerleaders that she’s sick. Her life’s about to change and she’s terrified by the loss of control.

Mia’s always been superstitious, but as her body starts to feel like it belongs less to her and more to the doctors and their needles, she becomes irrationally dependent on horoscopes, fortune cookies, and good luck charms. As chemotherapy replaces cheerleading and platelets replace parties, Mia just wants normal back. But despite searching for clues in everything from songs on the radio to her Magic 8 Ball, her future is coming up Outlook not so good.

Short Author Bio

Tiffany Schmidt grew up in Massachusetts where she spent a significant part of her childhood getting into mischief and sitting in the naughty chair. All those time outs turned out to be a blessing; they forced her to sit still long enough to hone her storytelling skills. Her audience was the family dog.

She now lives in Pennsylvania with her saintly husband and impish twin boys. She's repped by Joe Monti at Barry Goldblatt Literary. She still gets into mischief, she still has dogs, and she still tells stories. She very much hopes you like them

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(P.S. If you order Send Me a Sign now and take a picture of the receipt, Tiffany Schmidt will donate $1 to cancer. For more info: http://www.tiffanyschmidt.com/team-morgan-pre-orders/)

GYDO: Mindee Arnett

Mindee Arnett, Author of The Nightmare Affair (2013)

Inspiration behind The Nightmare Affair Inspiration and a (tiny) Sneak Peek

I’m so thrilled to be guest blogging here at Fiction Freak, and thanks so much to Nikki for inviting me. Today I’d like to share a little of the inspiration behind my debut, The Nightmare Affair.

The actual idea for a Nightmare as a mythical creature isn’t a new one. Nightmare folklore has been around for ages. My favorite historical depiction of one is in Henry Fuseli’s painting “The Nightmare” seen here:

I just love this picture. It’s creepy, weird, and beautiful. Oh, and it has a horse in it, always a win in my book. The Nightmare, of course, is the little demon sitting on the girl’s chest. My idea for Dusty, the main character in The Nightmare Affair, came out of this question: what if that little demon was actually a normal—well, mostly normal—teenage girl? And just like that, the book was born.

But what is it a Nightmare, really? It’s a complicated question and one you’ll have to read the book in order to find out. But here’s a little insight from Dusty herself to give you an idea. Hope you enjoy it!

I could smell the person’s dreams from here. Those dreams were the reason I’d broken in. I wasn’t some criminal or weirdo who liked watching people sleep or anything. I was just an average sixteen-year-old girl who happened to be the offspring of a normal human father and a mother who was a Nightmare.

Literally.

She was one of those mythic creatures who sat on your chest while you were asleep and gave you bad dreams, the kind where you woke up struggling to breathe. Some stories said that Nightmares were demons (not true), while others said they were “hags,” as in scary old women who lived in the forest and abducted lost kids to cook for supper (more true, although I didn’t recommend saying so to my mother).

Only kidding. Moira Nimue-Everhart didn’t eat children, but she did eat the stuff dreams were made of—fictus. Nightmares had to dream-feed to live, including me.

Nightmare Affair’s Synopsis:

16-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare.

Literally.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy is hard enough, but when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing.

But it does.

Eli is dreaming of a murder. The setting is Arkwell.

And then his dream comes true. Now Dusty has to follow the clues—both within Eli’s dreams and out of them—to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target…

Short Author Bio:

Mindee Arnett is the author of two forthcoming young adult series. The first book in her contemporary fantasy series, The Nightmare Affair, will be available March 2013 from Tor Teen (Macmillan). Her YA sci-fi thriller, Finding Eden, will debut Winter 2014 from Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins). She lives on a horse farm in Ohio with her husband, two kids, a couple of dogs, and an inappropriate number of cats. She’s addicted to jumping horses and telling tales of magic, the macabre, and outer space. Find her online at www.mindeearnett.com.

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GYDO: Jeanne Ryan

Jeanne Ryan, Author of Nerve (2012)

Hi blog-friends-of-Nikki! I thought I’d chat with you about writing on the edge. No, not composing prose while sky-diving or bungee-jumping, more like working on book premises that could exist now, on the fringe of what’s possible. Both NERVE, the book I have coming out next week, and CHARISMA, which is scheduled for release in 2014, are based on ideas that I believe could happen today, if they haven’t occurred already.

In NERVE, a major theme is privacy, and what we have to gain, or lose, by exposing our lives on the Internet. It features a game of dares, which are captured on phone cameras and broadcast on-line for bigger and bigger prizes. Although all of the technology involved in the story is available today, surprisingly, I’ve seen a couple of on-line comments about the book which refer to its “sci-fi” elements. At first, this perplexed me since I didn’t want readers to have the impression that this book was in a genre that it wasn’t. (Don’t get me wrong. I love sci-fi. I just haven’t written any. Yet.) But then I realized that maybe these readers’ comments were a sign I’d gotten things right. If you’re telling a story about events/technology/societal norms that are on the cutting edge of what’s possible, it stands to reason that some of your audience will believe they’re impossible. At least for now. J

Ten years ago, when folks were using little flip phones, who would’ve imagined that we’d have smart phones packed with games, linked to the Internet, and able to make video calls? I wonder what phones will look like ten years from now. Maybe they’ll be imbedded into our clothing somehow. Or maybe we’ll all just have little phone implants (to go with our brain-processing and memory implants). For now, these kinds of ideas might fall under the category of science fiction, but the minute a prototype is available, it’s fodder for a contemporary thriller.

And so I’ll keep reading the news, hunting for stories that I didn’t realize were possible until the moment I read them. Stuff such as gene therapy, which plays a role in my next book. For example, did you know there’s a type of congenital blindness that has been cured by injecting good genes to replace the faulty genes in patients’ retinas? And maybe the little rover that’s busily driving around on the surface of Mars will reveal something incredible. Who knows? This stuff is happening now!

How about you? Have you read anything recently that you didn’t realize was possible? It’s only a matter of time before someone turns it into a story.

Nerve Blurb

A high-stakes online game of dares turns deadly

When Vee is picked to be a player in NERVE, an anonymous game of dares broadcast live online, she discovers that the game knows her. They tempt her with prizes taken from her ThisIsMe page and team her up with the perfect boy, sizzling-hot Ian. At first it’s exhilarating—Vee and Ian’s fans cheer them on to riskier dares with higher stakes. But the game takes a twisted turn when they’re directed to a secret location with five other players for the Grand Prize round. Suddenly they’re playing all or nothing, with their lives on the line. Just how far will Vee go before she loses NERVE?

Debut author Jeanne Ryan delivers an un-putdownable suspense thriller.

Short Author Bio

I’ve lived all over the world, raised in a family with eleven brothers and sisters. I spent my early childhood in Hawaii and the rest of my growing-up years trying to figure out a way to get back there, with stops in South Korea, Michigan and Germany along the way. Before writing fiction, I tried my hand at many things, including war game simulation and youth development research. But I decided it was much more fun to work on stories than statistics.

These days, I still love Hawaii, but have found my home under the moody skies of the Pacific Northwest.

 

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GYDO: Elsie Chapman

Elsie Chapman, Author of Dualed (2013)

Physical copy or ebook?


Physical, absolutely. For me, I really need to feel the pages to truly appreciate a book. But ebooks are super useful for traveling!

Be a vampire or a werewolf? Or a zombiecorn?


Zombiecorn, all the way! It’s the new centaur.

Laptop or Desktop?


Oh, laptop. I couldn’t live without mine. I haven’t used the desktop in years.

Night Owl or Morning Bird?


Night owl. Love being awake when everyone else is sleeping. It’s very peaceful.

Damsel in Distress pretending to be a heroine or a heroine pretending to be a DID?


Straight up heroines who don’t need to pretend—unless it’s the only way they can win in the end.

Skirt or Jeans?


Jeans, please. Dark washes, with fading in the perfect spots.

Pet rock or goldfish?


I’ve had very bad luck with fish, so pet rock.

Favorite color?


I’m horrible at coordinating clothes, so I usually stick to black, grey, white, olive, and navy.

Favorite movie?


Oh, too many to pick! LOTR, the Bourne series, Lost in Translation, The Hangover, Inception, Aliens.

Favorite YA series?


Such a hard question! His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness. I have high hopes for Moira Young’s Dust Lands since I absolutely loved Blood Red Road. I also love many, many manga series.

Favorite food?


Sushi, black licorice, iced coffee, green tea flavoured anything.

Favorite random fact about you.

I still get lost in my own neighbourhood, and I’ve lived here for nearly ten years. And malls. Don’t leave me alone in a mall!

Favorite thing.

My family. My cats. My house. People I enjoy. 

Dualed Blurb

The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.

Elsie Chapman’s suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be better.

Author Bio

Elsie grew up in Prince George, BC, before graduating from the University of British Columbia with a BA in English Literature. She currently lives in Vancouver with her husband and two kids, where she writes to either movies on a loop or music turned up way too loud (and sometimes both at the same time).

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GYDO: Suzanne Lazear

Suzanne Lazear, author of Innocent Darkness (2012)

Don’t Fear the Mashup

By Suzanne Lazear

First off, I’d like to thank Nikki for inviting me.  Being a debut author is what of the most excitingly nerve-wracking thing I’ve ever experienced. 

I’m Suzanne Lazear, and I write things that end in “punk.” My debut YA, INNOCENT DARKNESS, is what I call “Fairytale Steampunk” – a mashup of Steampunk, faeries, and fairytales. 

Yeah, it’s a strange little mashup, but for me, it worked. I was combining things I loved, and I had solid reasoning for mixing them up. After all, the Victorians loved faeries, so why couldn’t a steampunk story, especially one that’s an alternate Victorian world, include faeries. 

But not everyone thought that way. Granted, I was writing this in 2009 and a lot less people knew what Steampunk was. I got really good at the 30-second explanation. Still, I got a few people who told me that I needed to pick one, that you couldn’t have both.

My answer was “why not?” 

Yes, the faeries outweigh the steampunk in book 1, because most of the story takes place in the Otherworld, Faerie, not the mortal realm, but the steampunk elements are still important in shaping the characters. 

If I took away Noli’s flying car and hoverboard I could still find a way for her to get in trouble, but it would also change something within her.  Her brother could still be something nefarious, but him being an air pirate adds a different layer to the story.  Sure, book one could probably stand without the steampunk but the characters would change, and when characters change, the story can, too. 

Also, since book 2 takes place mostly in the mortal realm on an airship, that book would change completely. 

What I’m trying to say, is that mashups aren’t meant to be feared, but embraced. If someone says you can’t do that, think hard before letting that stop you.  Sure, mashups don’t always work. I’ve got a hard drive full of them. But sometimes they do work. After all, I sold mine, and I’m not the only one writing Steampunk faeries either. 

Write the book the way it needs to be written.  Your characters will thank you.

~Suzanne

Innocent Darkness Blurb

Wish. Love. Desire. Live.

Sixteen-year-old Noli Braddock's hoyden ways land her in an abusive reform school far from home. On mid-summer's eve she wishes to be anyplace but that dreadful school. A mysterious man from the Realm of Faerie rescues her and brings her to the Otherworld, only to reveal that she must be sacrificed, otherwise, the entire Otherworld civilization will perish.

Short Author Bio
Suzanne Lazear’s young adult steampunk dark fairytale, INNOCENT DARKNESS, book 1 of The Aether Chronicles, will be released from Flux in August of 2012. Suzanne lives in Southern California with her daughter, the hubby, and a hermit crab, where she’s currently attempting to make a raygun to match her ballgown.

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