Research and the Fiction Writing Process, or Save Your Dignity and Google

Inspired by yesterday’s post, I decided to write a little about research.  I mentioned that research can do a lot to help you get inside the head of a character who is very different from you.  However research is also crucial to making your story realistic.  This may be obvious if you’re writing a story about medieval England or an underdog baseball team.  Yet many authors skip this step even when it’s obviously needed; even fewer authors make an effort to fact-check more minor details.  Even these minor details can be a real pain in the reader’s neck. 

It shows in your work, and makes you look lazy.  Now, I’m going to pick on Stephenie Meyer because she makes enough money that I feel she can take the hit.  In Eclipse, Rosalie explains that she lived in comfort during the Great Depression because her father was a banker.  Can anyone tell me what happened to the banks after the stock market crashed, because I’m pretty sure that they lost thousands upon millions of dollars.  She would have been bankrupt, not on track to marry a rich bachelor.  Not all mistakes are that blatant, but they can still make you look silly.  In Breaking Dawn, Bella and Edward go to Rio and drive west to reach the ocean.  However, Rio is on the east coast.  It may be small, but to someone who knows where Rio is, it’s jarring and makes them wonder why Meyer couldn’t have taken five minutes on Google to look at a map. 

Another famous example that grinds my teeth:  Amanda Hocking’s fictional language, Tryllic.  She claims that it looks like both Arabic and Cyrillic, but not Greek.  First of all, Cyrillic and Arabic look nothing alike.  Cyrillic has separate letters; Arabic’s letters are flowing and they connect in an elaborate cursive.  So maybe Tryllic (Tryllic – Cyrillic, get it?) manages to look like a mix of both.  So how does it not look anything like Greek, when the Cyrillic alphabet is the Greek alphabet with a few minor variations and extra letters?  Again, many readers won’t notice this, but when you do, it rips you out of the action and makes you doubt the authenticity of the fictional world. 

The examples go on, and it’s not only Meyer who’s guilty.  Some amateur fantasy authors think they can get away without doing research because they’re not writing about the real world.  However, the parts that should be the same are problematic.  If your fantasy army is still fighting with medieval-era weapons, then chances are, these weapons aren’t all that different from the Earth versions.  No, I don’t care how big and burly your hero is.  He’s not wielding a 20-pound broadsword.  Even if he could hold it aloft for more than a few minutes, he would be killed in minutes by an opponent with a faster blade.  Even the heaviest swords were only around 5 pounds (Three minutes on Google: http://www.thehaca.com/essays/weights.htm).  So whenever I see someone writing about their hero (or worse, heroine) wielding a sword that weighs a fifth of what they do, I cringe, and it’s harder to take the author seriously.  Another grievous example:  horses.  They’re not cars.  They can’t go a hundred miles a day at a full gallop, or they’ll break a leg or die.  A trained endurance horse can do 100 maximum, at a walk. 

So you see, many authors put these facts in without looking them up.  They either think they know the answer or just don’t want to put in the extra effort.  Many readers will be fooled.  However, to the readers who happen to know something about the real facts, the author will look lazy and the reader will be pulled out of the story--the last thing you ever want to happen.  Now we’ve all been guilty of it.  You think you know the answer, you’re not quite sure, but you just want to get that passage written.  Or maybe you just have the wrong answer stuck in your head and you don’t know it’s wrong.  I’ve done it.  Everyone has.  However, even if you think you’re sure, it’s worth it to take the extra effort and look it up.  Even J.K. Rowling has been guilty, with her infamous math mistakes.  You may still have a fantastic, compelling story.  However if you skip the research step, you’re going to lose any readers who do have a clue, when a little bit of Googling or a couple of books on medieval military practice could have impressed your readers with your story’s authenticity, rather than making them roll their eyes.  

Getting into Character, or How to Write People Nothing Like You

How do you get into character when your mind just won’t wrap around it?  It’s a problem I’ve been having lately.  Writing a teen romance when you’ve just gotten out of a relationship may seem like good therapy, but parts of it are torture.  Staying true to the character of your heroine when you’re down in the dumps and she’s giddy and giggly with the thrill of a new relationship is tortuous.  My teen readers would be a little put off if all Chloe wants to do is mope on Tyler’s shoulder. 

But this isn’t just a problem of moods.  What about a character who’s much older than you, or much younger?  A character who was born in a drastically different tax bracket.  One who lives in a different state, a different country, a different time.  One who’s sadistic, histrionic, affected by a medical condition or psychological disorder.  How do you get into the head of someone whose head is practically another planet? 

The easy answer is not to write about such people, but that’s no fun.  “Write what you know” stops being good advice when you realize that writing about a middle class girl in her twenties with all the same traits you have doesn’t really give your imagination much of a workout. 

The best answer I’ve found is to people watch.  Don’t stalk them.  That’s illegal, and creepy.  However there are plenty of subjects around all the time.  Whenever I’m in a crowded place, I find myself zoning out and watching people interact.  The airport is the best--people at their most stressed, so all the masks tend to slip.  It’s not going to give you much of fifteenth century England or your sadistic alien Glork, but hey, you can pick up a lot of interesting accents and behavior peculiarities.  You may not remember much about being a little kid, but watch a few and you’ll start to see the ways they talk and make up words and move through the world.  Watch your friends.  They probably won’t mind too much, and you know them better than anyone else. 

The other best answer:  read.  Reading nonfiction gives you the details you need, whether it’s history about Victorian manners, a memoir of someone growing up in poverty, or a case study of someone struggling with a mental disorder.  Your imagination can take you far, but there are some situations that are impossible to understand if you don’t have original source material.  So writing a happy, bubbly character when you’re feeling depressed only requires remember how to feel happy, but writing an inner city kid or a soldier will sound flat if you don’t know what you’re talking about, even offensive.  It’s easy to tell when an author hasn’t bothered to fact check; don’t be that guy. 

Another solution:  take it to the extreme.  You may not be a villain, but you’ve definitely been mean to someone before.  Well what if you actually said all those things you keep to yourself, because you know they’d hurt someone?  Bingo.  Evil baddie.  Aren’t one of those happy, bubbly people we talked about earlier, who are outgoing with everyone?  You’ve had outgoing moments though.  Think of those and multiply them by ten. 

It’s not an exhaustive list, just things I’ve been brainstorming while trying to solve my Chloe problem.  Really getting into a character and writing them like they’re part of you takes more than just watching people, reading their stories, or taking your own traits to the next level ... but everyone needs to start somewhere.  Time to go eat some chocolate, watch The Matrix, and borrow some of Neo’s killer confidence.  Next step, write a fun happy Chloe.  

Literature after Harry Potter and the Fate of Fantasy

Looking back over the last two decades, there’s only one book series that has truly defined it.  Harry Potter.  J.K. Rowling captured even the attention of adults with her magical series, but it’s really those of us who were children or adults when the books came out who have felt it the most.  Harry was our idol.  We wanted to befriend him, or be him.  We waited in ridiculous midnight lines to get the books before anyone else could, and when those ended, we had the movies to look forward to.  After going to see the last movie this week, I was left with just one thought: what now? 

Where does children’s and young adult fiction go from here?  It’s a complicated answer.  The big question hinges on the divide between Harry Potter and Twilight.  Now obviously a lot of people really like both series, but looking at bookshelves these days, there’s a clear split.  Twilight and its massive popularity among teen girls sparked a huge flood of vampire books.  As those got saturated, the flood waters turned to angels, sirens, werewolves, even trolls.  High fantasy poked its head out a little, but horror with a big thread of romance won out.  Vampire Diaries.  Mortal Instruments.  Firelight.  Now dystopian is huge, but it just seems to be taking over where horror left off.  Teens are looking for something dark.  Wild.  Adventurous.  They want blood, danger, and obsessive, passionate romance.  Everything has to push the limits of reality and drive every emotion to its painful extreme.  The lead characters are strong heroines surrounded by dark bad boys and broken families and worlds. 

Even Harry Potter got a little dark towards the end, but overall, it was something lighter and more whimsical than the dark YA stuff we’re seeing.  Harry and his friends lived in a world with silly names, crazy creatures, spells that could make you tapdance and grow feathers.  Romance existed, but it never overshadowed the wild magical adventures or epic good-and-evil plot.  So where are all the Potter copycats?  They’ve been left behind in children’s fiction: Spiderwick, Percy Jackson, Eragon.  These heroes are boys with vast destinies in worlds of mythology and legend.  Magic is a force for good but always tinged with the opposing evil. 

So what is it that has made teenage girls in dark worlds the queens of teen lit, and kept high fantasy and its magic and chosen boys back in childhood?  More girls seem to keep reading into their teen years than boys.  Girls are also more willing to read about a male hero than boys are to read about a female one.  There are exceptions obviously.  Many boys devour today’s teen lit.  But the trends are clear.  Perhaps horror is too dark for young readers, and authors choose male heroes to catch the most readers.  However why hasn’t high fantasy made the same impact in the teen world as horror has?  Where are all the wizards?  Why did Harry Potter bridge the child-adult gap while no one else can?  And when did the romantic subplot and female lead become a necessity?  Can high fantasy fit in to this new stormy landscape? 

To the last question: maybe.  High fantasy is just plain hard.  Building a huge new fantasy world, even wrapped up on Earth, takes a lot of imagination and a lot of time.  Not all authors want to tackle that.  It’s much easier to pick a fantasy creature, stick it in human’s clothing in a normal high school, and make it fall in love with a normal girl.  That’s not saying there aren’t a lot of well developed supernaturals out there, but you aren’t seeing the big developed worlds anymore.  As for the wizards, maybe magic is just too easy for today’s teens.  High fantasy lends itself to big epic battles between the forces of good and evil, with plenty of magic thrown in.  However today’s teens are looking for an evil that’s more human.  The supernatural creatures are more like broken people, with their own fears, motivations, and complications.  The dystopian empires are run by real faces with real political goals. 

And maybe that’s one thing Harry Potter really did right.  Voldemort was no faceless evil without a past; he had a name, a history, a broken childhood that we saw more and more with each book.  We met his Death Eaters and knew their stories.  We knew what they fought for, and it wasn’t just power.  There was good and evil, but it wasn’t ever black and white.  If high fantasy has a hope of breaking into the teen market where it’s been dormant for so long, it needs to modernize.  Find a more human evil.  Tap into something darker and more emotional.  Playful, whimsical fantasy will always have its place in children’s lit, but teens need something that makes sense in a real world filled with tragedy and growing pains.  There will never be another Harry Potter, but with Rowling’s example and a new face, wizards, dragons, and magic can still live on.  

What's new on Evie's bookshelf

Well I am back from my vacation!  I guess I probably should have announced it before I went, but a stupid little part of me though, “Oh hey I’ll have my computer. I’ll have plenty of time to blog while I’m gone.”  Yeah clearly that worked out very well.  I have missed you all but it was great having a break.  I got to see a bunch of old friends and new cities and I think I ate enough good food to keep me alive for a week without eating, so I call that a success. 

Since I just went to the bookstore, today will be a New Books day! 

13 Reasons Why – Jay Asher

I had no idea that this book existed when I walked into the bookstore, but the collage-style cover looked so cool on the New Teen Books rack that I just gravitated towards it.  I can’t wait to read.  It’s Asher’s debut novel and it’s already gotten a lot of good buzz.  The story follows teenager Clay who receives a package containing the recorded voice of Hannah, a classmate who recently committed suicide.  The tapes lead him through the story leading up to her death, and the secrets behind it.  It sounds incredibly powerful and according to the reviews, well done.  I’ll have a review up for it soon! 

Vampire Diaries – LJ Smith

Okay so it doesn’t really count since I’ve read them, but I had only borrowed them from a friend before so now I have my very own set!  I think I’m going to read them over.  I like TV Elena better because she’s less perfect and more realistic as a teenager, but I miss the depth you get with each of the characters in the books. 

City of Ashes – Cassandra Clare

I’ve been wanting to read the Mortal Instruments series forever.  What’s not to love about a book that contains demons, demon hunters who may or may not be as scary as the demons, fallen angels, and poor mortals with strange powers trapped in the crossfire?  This isn’t just teen romance; there’s real danger and an epic fantasy plot driving the characters along.  It was on the bargain rack but they were out of the first one, so I’ll have to keep looking. 

Clockwork Prince – Cassandra Clare

First in the Infernal Devices series.  This series explains everything behind the first book: what happened before the Shadowhunters caught up with Clary?  I’m really tempted to read this first since it’s technically the prequel to the other series, but then I’ll just have to wait longer for the rest to come out.  What do you think, fans?  Read the Mortal Instruments first even though they come later chronologically? 

So that’s what’s on my bookshelf right now.  I can’t wait to start reading!  

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi: Cover Review

Yes, if you hadn't noticed, I'm obsessed with covers.  This one struck me as soon as I saw it in a friend's twitter link about Dystopian books.  The two-colored shattered glass effect is astoundingly pretty.  Glitter always catches my eye and the way this sparkle explodes out towards the reader just pulls you in towards the book.  Best part?  Apparently, according to the Hollywood Crush interview, the shatter effect was pulled off with some tricky camera effects that use lights and long exposures to create photos where light is the paint (hence, light painting).  Check out this amazing photo I found for another example.  The idea for the double text on the top tagline is also cool, reminding you of the two-worlds effect.  

However, the text is my least favorite part of the cover.  The strikeout through one of the taglines looks wobbly and strange with the dropshadow; it looks like something a kid would do in Photoshop.  The Shatter Me text is a cool idea, but the stark black text doesn't match the shadowed text at all, and it's SO black against a very light part of the background that it doesn't seem to fit.  The red comes from nowhere; I think it would have looked better in a light color.  On another note, what's with the dress?  This book is about a girl who starts off in prison in a dying world, right?  Is she going to a prison ball?  

Overall, A- for the cover.  Beautiful photography and layout, but the text is a little cheesy.  

Best movie quotes of all time...for now

Today I’m exhausted from writing about two thousand words of Rebellion, so it’s going to be list day!  This is a very capricious list, because it’s only the first ten to come to mind and they’re not really in any good order except for the last two.  So here it goes: 

10.  Fight Club – “His name is Robert Paulsen.”  Many

[Creepy, key point in the movie, where the narrator is sort of trying to take over but the cult is just too far gone.  Always gives me chills.] 

9.  Constantine – “Right, John, you did tell me to move it, but if you would have told me there was a three hundred pound mirror you were dropping with a pissed-off demon, I would have moved it further, John!”  Chas Kramer

[It’s not the most epic of lines, but it’s just so hysterical.  Shia makes a really good spastic sidekick.] 

8. Edward Scissorhands – “You see, before he came down here, it never snowed. And afterwards, it did. If he weren't up there now... I don't think it would be snowing. Sometimes you can still catch me dancing in it.”  Kim  

[So one of the most famous in the movie, but it’s so absolutely pretty with the snow in the background and it makes me cry.]

7. Pride and Prejudice – “As it is I wouldn't dance with him for all of Darbyshire, let alone the miserable half.”  Elizabeth Bennett

[It would be one of Darcy’s if I could add the video with his gorgeous puppy eyes, but this one I like because it’s Lizzie being feisty.] 

6.  Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure – “Deacon, do you realize you have just stranded one of Europe's greatest leaders in San Dimas?” Theodore Logan

[There’s just something so wonderfully ridiculous about the idea of losing Napoleon in a California water park.  Gets me every time.] 

5. The Dark Knight – “You see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push!” 

[Just seems kind of insightful.  Plus Heath’s facial expressions make it.] 

4.  Fight Club – “I am Jack’s smirking revenge.” Edward Norton  

[Classic.  More chills.] 

3.  Say Anything – “I gave her my heart.  She gave me a pen.”  Lloyd

[It’s the best romantic movie line ever because the pen part makes it not be sappy, so it’s just really sweet and, well, Lloyd.] 

2.  V for Vendetta -  “He was Edmond Dantes... and he was my father. And my mother... my brother... my friend. He was you... and me. He was all of us.”  Evey Hammond

[Epic.  It’s just such a sweet tribute to V and it takes the whole movie’s theme and manages to make it really short and sweet.] 

1.  The Dark Knight – “Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.”  Lt. Gordon

[More epic.  The narration over Batman escaping with the sad music is just the most heartwrenching scene ever.] 

Now I think I’m going to go watch Princess Bride again…. Which didn’t make the list only because of silly author oversight.  So number 11, “Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!”  

Trylle's Switched: Okay Start for a Snazzy Trilogy

Title:  Switched

Author:  Amanda Hocking

Format:  Kindle

Rating:  5 / 10

When Wendy Everly was six-years-old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. It isn't until eleven years later that Wendy finds out her mother might've been telling the truth. 

With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed - and it's one she's not sure if she wants to be a part of.

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while.  I know tons of people have reviewed it, but there are just a few things that I haven’t really seen mentioned that I think need to be addressed.  I’ve read four (about to be five) books by Hocking and of them all, Switched is my least favorite.  The two sequels, Torn and Ascend, really showcase Hocking’s great talent for fast-paced drama, quirky characterization, and guilty-pleasure romance.  Switched just doesn’t seem to fit. 

That isn’t to say that it’s a bad book.  As far as your superstar paranormal romance authors are concerned (yes, we’re talking Stephenie Meyer here) she has a much better grasp on drama.  The psycho-mother prologue yanks you into the story, since (a) what heartless reader wouldn’t feel bad for a six-year-old being attacked by her mother and (b) it’s impossible to read that scene and not long to know what terrible truth made Kim Everly try to kill her daughter.  Then suddenly, we meet Wendy’s potential stalker, who can barely reveal her real past to her before the baddies come to attack.  Hocking doesn’t waste time with long opening expositions; she lets you meet her characters on the fly and make your own impressions, which is always appreciated. 

Unfortunately, the gripping pace that she keeps up through My Blood Approves, Fate, and Flutter is derailed in Switched.  The beginning is frenetic.  Wendy is barely introduced before we learn the mystery of Finn Holmes, her heart is won and broken by Finn, and she finds out her true Trylle heritage.  Her romance with Finn, one of the key elements of Switched and still integral in Torn and Ascend, begins with a few teenage heart flutters, staring contests, and about three minutes of dancing.  Suddenly they’re in love, even though almost every conversation they have throughout the first part of the book reads like a Trylle lesson.  All they’ve got is a well of sexual tension, which is enough for teenage infatuation but doesn’t properly set up the intense love they allegedly share by the second book.  Unfortunately, his hard, excessively dutiful personality makes a genuine emotional relationship between the two difficult to swallow.  (And what’s so “endearing” about being a “damn psychopath”, I want to know?  Let’s nip the trend of stalker-crushes in the bud.) 

She won me back with Rhys, Willa, Elora, and Tove, supporting characters who often steal the show from Wendy with their strong personalities.  Tove, the quirky, distractible son of a rival noble, is probably my favorite character in the whole series (if you don’t count the generic but adorably snarky Loki, introduced in Torn).  Yet, like most of the characters, Tove doesn’t truly shine in Switched, receiving only brief, unsatisfactory cameos.  Wendy is the best developed; her frantic personality kept me reading even when the plot lagged into long Trylle-history lessons.  While often confused and useless, she’s no Bella Swan.  She knows that she’s unprepared.  That doesn’t mean she accepts it.  She’s not afraid to take control of her own destiny, even if it means calling out Finn for his annoying complacence, going against her scary royal mother’s wishes, or doing a bit of her own investigating. 

Unfortunately, even Wendy’s endearing personality isn’t enough to overshadow a plot that reads a lot like a history lesson; you know to be worried when there’s a chapter titled “Further Instruction”.  Wendy spends a really long time learning about Trylle life and not a whole lot of time living it.  The super neat abilities, like mind control and telekinesis, hardly even come into play until the last quarter of the book.  Follow it up with an ending so abrupt that I thought I might be missing pages, and I was left feeling like something was missing.  I will say:  I cared enough about Wendy that I still read the sequel, even though I was ambivalent about the first book.  

But here comes my pet peeve:  Trylle worldbuilding.  Being rather fond of the Swedes, I was disconcerted to see their language appropriated wholesale without a good reason.  “Trylle” is just the plural for trolls.  A quick Google of “mansklig” ruined one plot surprise long before Wendy even thought to ask about it.  However other words like “markis” and “marksinna” just appear to be made up.  Considering the Trylle live so separately from humans, I wonder they didn’t invent their own language.  Also, while not mentioned in the first book, I find it relevant to note that “Tryllic”, the language of Trylle, is written in a script stolen wholesale from Cyrillic (and if you take a couple seconds to Google them, you’ll realize that, contrary to how the script is described in the glossary, it’s impossible for that script to look exactly like both Cyrillic and Arabic, or to look like Cyrillic but not Greek).

The world of the Trylle with their changelings and abilities is fascinating and refreshing in a vampire-dominated market, but propped up by someone else’s haphazardly appropriated culture, it feels sketchily constructed.  As for the trolls, they follow the trend of sapping old world myths of their most basic elements.  Like fangless, sun-walking vampires, they resemble their mythological kin only in name.  They’re basically sexy, brown-haired witches who happen to use changelings (the logic Finn uses to convince Wendy she’s a troll is tragically comical).  The Trylle are interesting creatures in their own right with abilities that, unlike most supernaturals, actually have important consequences.  I’d love to read about them.  But call them trolls, and I just don’t see the connection. 

To end what has become an unintentionally long review, I will say this.  Switched is a mediocre introduction to its two fast-paced, fascinating sequels.  While Torn and Ascend don’t solve all the worldbuilding problems of Switched, and suffer from their predecessor’s sketchy underpinnings, they do shine as gems of indie YA romance, with characters you can care about and page-turning plots.  So yes, read Switched because it’s a gateway to the other two; but don’t expect Hocking’s best, because she’s saved it for the sequels.  

When your characters take over

So much driving!  The next time I go to visit friends, I think I’m going to fly.  Corn.  Corn.  Hills.  Corn.  That’s pretty much been my whole weekend.  It was really fun but unfortunately it took a big chunk of my writing time and made it disappear.  Not so magical now that I’m a couple thousand words behind schedule.  I’m trying not to let it get to me.  Writers have lives too.  I think. 

Other than the set-backs, the book has been going really well.  Every day that I write, I find my characters becoming more and more real to me.  They’re like good old friends who don’t do very much while I’m not there and are always happy to see me.  Well, not always.  I think poor Chloe gets pretty mad at me for all the awkward situations I throw her in.  Do you ever feel like your characters are talking to you?  Not in the kind of way that makes you question your sanity.  I mean like sometimes they’ll start to do things seemingly on their own that you don’t expect them to do.  You’ll try to write them into a scene and they just say No! That’s not who I am!

It’s a magical feeling when you finally figure out who they really are.  I think I’m getting there and I can’t wait to share them with everyone, make them as real for you as they are for me.  For now, I’m going to watch a romantic comedy about a Revolutionary War nerd and try to get my mojo back. 

Also, here’s another teaser!  Just because I’m feeling silly. 

“So...you come to concerts often?”  

More blinking.  I had no idea whether to be flattered or terrified.  He sounded like a bad movie, only there wasn’t enough tone in his voice to hint at whether I was supposed to be taking him seriously or not.  “Not really.  My friend bought the tickets.”  I was so proud of myself.  A full sentence!  It took me almost thirty seconds to think it up, but it was really hard to think clearly when I was sitting next to someone who was absolutely gorgeous and might or might not be thinking about kidnapping me.  Or just insulting me.  I really wasn’t sure anymore.  

What's up with this Twitter thing anyway?

A full week of blogs and things are going great!  I’ve moved my sights to Twitter and what?  Seven followers!  One for every day I’ve been writing these blogs, I guess.  I know I’m a dork but it’s so exciting that people out there want to know what I’m up to.  There are SO many new authors.  I’ll admit I was afraid that I’d just go unnoticed. 

There are just a lot of things I’m still trying to figure out about twitter.  Like, why do some of the trends have hash tags (#) and some don’t?  Also, most importantly, how many tweets is too much?  Some people seem to tweet every single thought they have and tons of links and stories that take more than one tweet to complete, and some barely tweet at all.  When does tweeting stop being entertaining and start getting annoying?  Feel free to share your thoughts. 

I guess it’s something I’ll find out.  I will say though, I had to stop following the Madden brothers because as much as I love them, they tweet way too much!  I may be a twitter newbie, but I’m pretty sure that it’s not good when the home screen feed is only two people tweeting back and forth.  I’ll stick to listening to their music.  ;)  

Reading Teen: Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Reading Teen: Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver: "Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: HarperCollins; Special edition (August 2, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10..."

Not only does the book sound great (super exciting, endearing characters, original plot), but the cover is one of my all time favorites. The peek-through windows make it much more interesting than the usual picture-of-girl cover you see in teen books. It's very simple and elegant, with just the solid color, the pretty curly text, and the picture behind it. Nothing busy, nothing cheesy. Can't wait to get a copy.

First follower happy dance!

Today’s post is going to be short and sweet and exciting.  Welcome and thanks to my first follower, Lili!  I know I’ve only been doing this for a week, so it’s really wonderful and surprising that someone already has an interest in what I’m doing.  That’s always the danger in the blogging world and it’s probably what kept me scared to do it for so long.  There are so many blogs out there, really good blogs, with really good writers who write really good books, that never get any readers. 

I’m not going to be arrogant and assume I’m one of those really good writers, but I think I do have a shot.  I work hard at my writing and I want to see it change someone someday or at least make them smile.  Every follower is so important to me.  It’s one more person who maybe believes as much as I do that my writing can mean something. 

So, thank you Lili, for being my very first follower!  I can’t wait to watch this blog and these books grow.  

Rebellion Teaser Excerpt and Magical Writing

Today was an amazing writing day!  Sometimes I feel like I’m sitting at the computer dragging my feet, typing one word a minute just to keep things going.  However there are those magical, much-sought-after moments when an hour has passed without you realizing it and there are a thousand new words on your screen.  You hardly remember typing them.  It’s a weird trancelike state.  Your brain is whirring too fast for you to consciously notice what you’re saying.  Your characters are coming out of your fingertips on their own. 

If only there were more of these days.  I got a few thousand words done and I don’t even feel drained at all.  Rebellion is coming along faster than I could have hoped.  It really helped having a conversation with my friend Mark this morning.  I was telling him about a plot problem I was having.  He wrinkled his nose and said, “Evie (well, the equivalent), you didn’t explain what Brad was doing that whole week.  Just do that.” 

Of course.  Some of the best plot ideas hit because you totally forgot to explain something earlier in the story, and suddenly when you go back and fix it, everything starts to make sense again.  So Brad got to sneak back into the story and now Chloe and Tyler are actually doing something important instead of just sitting on the dock waiting for me to tell them what to do. 

Just because I feel like it, here’s a little teaser to keep you interested: 

“

The machine stopped with a groan, leaving me dripping yogurt and half-churned berries while Becky and her friends laughed their blonde highlights right out.  I could have crawled under the counter and died.  My entire face and the front of me was dripping with yogurt and berries and to make matters worse, Smoothie Sultan was right in the middle of the food court, which was just a fenced off area in the middle of the mall.  

In other words, every person sitting in the food court and everyone walking by had a full view of my splattered self, including perhaps the hottest guy I had ever seen in my life.  Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme, but seriously.  He may not have been a model, but I bet he could have been.  Maybe for some alternative magazine.  His black hair brushed down across one eye wouldn’t have looked so good in Abercrombie, but the abs outlined by his tight band shirt would have been very fitting.  I didn’t really get a long look, because he looked at me, smirked, and vanished behind a Directory kiosk.  “

There you go.  A quick look at Rebellion.  

A Tale of Many Reviews: Teaser Excerpt & Cover Reveal

A Tale of Many Reviews: Teaser Excerpt & Cover Reveal: "The Willows: Haven, book #1 in The Willows series, is slated to be released the end of August by Soul Fire Press, an imprint of Christoph..."

I love love this cover! It's super classy with the simple dark color scheme and the photograph is just awesome. It's not your typical YA cover with maybe a cool object or a girl's face or something. The inversion of the water and the girl immediately makes you wonder what's going on and it's the perfect hook to draw you in so you can learn more. I'm working on my own cover now, so I've been looking at covers a lot lately. This one gets an A+.

The Truth About Evie

I realize that it’s a little weird, having a penname and being so open about it.  Let’s be honest though.  It wouldn’t take long for you to figure out that Evelyn Connor isn’t a real person.  I don’t want this blog to be about me and all my own drama.  My personality will come out but I don’t want to talk a lot about myself, I want my writing to be the focus.  This is my chance to be someone I’m a bit too scared to be in real life.  Someone who gets to play out her own dreams.  So I can’t tell you everything about me and I won’t.  But it’s still me behind the screen, typing this, talking with you all.  So in the interest of full disclosure and that kind of thing, here are some true facts about me.  And a couple of invented things just to be cheeky.   

- I’m in my twenties.    

- I would marry Keanu Reeves or Ben Gibbard instantly if they asked me.    

- Sometimes I tell people I know how to surf, but really I suck. 

- I’m a little convinced that Bloody Mary is real. 

- I wear the same necklace almost every day. 

- I like chick flicks.  I also like movies with badass heroes who slay demons and machines and take out Parliament.  I would rather admit the second kind. 

- Slasher movies don’t scare me.  Zombies do.  Kind of. 

- My favorite color is not pink. 

- I have a dog about the size of a large football named Theodore Logan.  Or just Theo.  I was kind of embarrassed getting a purse dog, but he was supposed to be hypoallergenic. I love him. 

- I want the 80s back.  The 90s were pretty cool but they didn’t have as much glitter. 

- I like video games but I’m terrible at them these days. 

- I also like shopping.  You can like both. 

- Sometimes I feel like I have multiple personalities. 

- I don’t really like heat.  I could probably live in Alaska and be A-ok. 

- I also don’t like cold, so maybe Alaska is out. 

- I love peanut butter more than any person should.  It’s amazing on pizza. 

- I’ve been writing stories since I was five years old.  My first really long one was with a friend, about a time traveling unicorn.  I don’t plan on revamping that one.  It’s already escaped in a better form.

So there.  Now you know a little about me.  I’m a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in an illusion.  Welcome to my world! 

Updated for clarity and to take out the boring facts because some of them were really boring.  

The Modern Happy Ending

It’s amazing how sometimes heartbreak makes you want to curl up into a little ball in front of 27 Dresses or The Matrix, and sometimes it makes you want to write about fake people until you can’t type straight.  For better or worse, I’ve been in stage two for a couple days.  Five thousand words later, I feel pretty proud of myself.  Maybe I still hurt, but if I can turn it into something beautiful, that’s what matters, right? 

I hate to sound like a greeting card but there is just something so therapeutic about writing fantasy or paranormal books.  It’s not about getting to write a perfect world where everything happens perfectly.  No one wants to read that.  If Cinderella was a rich kid with two cool parents and a steady boyfriend, Hans Christian Andersen would just be another random Swedish guy.  Instead, we have the girl who gets kicked around by the stepmother, hates her life, and then gets a little magic help to make her own happy ending. 

No one cares about the happy ending if it’s easy to get.  You need Victoria hunting down your family ala Twilight.  You need a bunch of demons and a dead twin sister luring your girl into danger--yeah I’m looking at you Constantine, and the oh-so-dreamy Keanu.  Or maybe you’re Molly Ringwald and no one’s figured out how awesome you are yet.  That’s what I love about romance stories, whether that’s the spotlight or they’re wrapped up in an awesome adventure story.  Sometimes it’s hard to believe in truth and destiny and all those bigger-than-you things if you don’t have something just for you to keep you grounded. 

Maybe the ending isn’t even happy.  Maybe it’s just hopeful.  In the very end of a series, you kind of want to see the heroine get what she deserves.  The guy.  The dream house.  The snazzy job.  But modern romance isn’t all about the happy ending.  Maybe for this girl, everything around her is broken but she’s gotten so strong that you just know everything will eventually be okay.  You know she’ll get her happy ending.  She’ll make it happen.  Cinderella was great, but today’s heroines know how to take matters into their own hands.  They get the guy and save the world. 

In all that practical news, the writing really is getting underway pretty far now.  I’ve been working on it a crazy lot because it’s summer and that means real work, you know the kind currently making me money, is really slow.  Thanks to my wonderful friends / editors, it shouldn’t be long before the first book is ready to see the world.  Pretty soon, I’ll give you some excerpts.  For now, I have to go work on giving Chloe her happy ending.  Or just make her happy enough so she’ll stop yelling at me for not writing. ;) 

So what are you writing anyway?

On to what you really want to know: what about my writing?  Paranormal romance, huh?  So that last answer wasn’t satisfying?  So you want me to stop asking rhetorical questions?  Kidding.  

Have I read Twilight?  Of course I have.  I find it hard to believe that anyone who writes seriously in paranormal romance could avoid reading it.  Do I want to be Stephenie Meyer?  No.  Stephenie Meyer already does a great job of being herself.  I love her books and the beautiful images and emotions she creates but I'm not out there to be a copy of her.  There are plenty of things I would have done different if I wrote Twilight. When people read my books, I want to enjoy them because they're thrilling and good, not because they're "just like Twilight" without the vampires.  Or with--who know, I might write about vampires someday. 

Just not today.  The series I’m working on now is about some snazzy angels and demons who get themselves mixed up on Earth.  I’m not looking to get some big controversy stirred up like over The Golden Compass.  I’m not badmouthing anyone’s religion and I’m not picking sides or anything.  I just like Constantine more than I should admit and I’ve always liked the way it plays with what you expect about supernatural beings and turns it upside down. 

So these are the angels and demons of Rebellion: kind of mixed up immortals who have super nifty powers.  They don’t always have a direct line to the big higher powers.  They make mistakes.  They’re sexy.  They can see things we can’t.  They look a lot like us but they’re definitely not human.  They spend a lot of time messing around on Earth fighting each other and sometimes we get in the way. 

Chloe?  She’s just a high school girl in a dorky Smoothie Sultan visor trying to save up for college.  The gorgeous guy with the punk rock shirts turns out to be from the underworld and her best friend sprouts wings, but she’s taking it pretty well.  Only it’s hard to enjoy the queasy feelings of a first romance when the guy you’re locking lips with isn’t the only demon trying to get his hands on you.  

Hey there, brand new me

If it isn’t obvious in another couple sentences, I’m new to the blog world.  There.  I’ve done it.  I’ve outed myself as a newbie.  Let the rain of flames and eye rolls begin!  Just joking.  I’m going to go ahead hoping that people out there will be nice and give me a little break while I’m figuring out this whole blog thing.  Or get an umbrella.  

How about instead of bad jokes, I tell you a little about myself?  Most importantly, I am not all real.  Not in some weird alien way.  I am me, but Evelyn Connor isn’t my name.  A lot of bloggers get on here to make their own names famous.  I’m here because I want my writing to be famous.  Forget my name.  I’m a little bored of it anyway. 

I spent longer than I want to admit pouring all my energy into a relationship that broke apart, and was probably infected for a long time.  I know, I know.  Sad story.  Everyone goes through it.  Nothing special.  What they don’t tell you is it doesn’t feel like just nothing special when it happens.  You can see it coming for months and when you hear those words it’s still like you were living in some happy world where things were going to work out and it was just a rough patch.  It’s amazing how long you can tell yourself it was just a rough patch even when deep down you feel like everything’s wrong.  Even when you’re questioning everything about yourself cause your head says it’s all your fault, and if you could just make yourself perfect then everything would be perfect.  It’s not like he’s going to change your mind.  He’s too busy weighing his options, deciding if she’s worth getting rid of you.      

Well it’s been over a month and guess what?  It still feels like I got myself stabbed in the stomach and they can’t find the knife.  Only I don’t want to be that person anymore.  I gave up on my writing for so long so I could try to keep a dying, corrupted thing alive and now it’s my turn to be alive.  They always say when you’re hurting you should make a change.  Dye your hair.  Get a new job.  Well how about a new name?  Evelyn Connor is me but she’s my chance to reinvent myself.  I’m done living in the past where I’m stuck in cement.  This future is going to be about me.  My books.  My passion.  Without all the ties to what happened back then. 

This is getting long, so I'm just going to say that this blog won’t be me whining for months and months.  I’m moving forward and that means talking about what makes me happy.  Like my books!  :)

So why paranormal romance?  First the short answer:  There’s just nothing like fantasy to make you believe in love.  Again.