Pretty Little Liars–Book Review

To make the best of my four days of tech hell migrating laptops, I read Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard.

Ms. Shepard is going to be speaking at the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA so it was prime time to read something she wrote.

The books made me think Gossip Girl meets The Babysitters Club.

I loved having the four POVs of each of the best friends who became strangers after the mysterious disappearance of their fifth best friend in middle school. The story unfold three years later.

The pacing is fantastic. A definite page turner. By spending a chapter with each of the four girls, the reader gets to watch everything unfolding in their lives.

There are a few mysteries in the story. Firstly, all four remaining friends are receiving notes and texts about their biggest secrets from the past and their current secrets. Things only their missing friend would know and things no one should know now. Then there is the mystery of something they did together back in 6th grade and refer to as The Jenna Thing from 6th grade.

And finally, the mystery of what happened to their fifth friend, Alison.

There’s a good amount of flirtation and sexual situations too. I found myself rooting for Spencer and Wren.

“Never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret” is a fantastic hook.

It was a fun read and a fast read. Definitely worth checking out. I can see why it made the NYT Bestseller list.

I’m Not a Finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest

Every run of good luck comes to an end.

Today, I  must confide a sad fact. My phone did not ring on May 14th. My email did not get a note from Amazon. I did not advance to the finals (Top 3) in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest.

I still get to retain my title of semifinalist (Top 50). I still get to keep 3rd prize and 2nd prize. I got to place in the contest. That’s pretty awesome. I’ve been able to add it to my bio paragraph in my query letter. I have more writing credentials. Logically, I am thrilled that I made it one round, let alone 3 rounds in this contest.

But when the phone didn’t ring, sadness settled over me. My mind knew it wasn’t the end of the world. There was still laundry to be done. Queries to be sent out. And that gosh darn sun would rise the next day like nothing happened.

Inside, it just felt like the end of my world right now. At 34, I felt the searing sadness of a teenager. Like everything was collapsing inward.

It was the death of a hope. After making it three rounds, I thought I had a shot at the finals. Granted only 20% advanced each round. And as a semifinalist, I only had a 6% chance of making it to the finals. So mathematically, my hope should have dwindled.

I had this really intense dream a week and a half ago too. I saw on a computer screen that I did not make the finals. And I woke up so downtrodden and certain that I hadn’t made them. I tried to shake the feeling and say it was only a dream, but it felt too real. Maybe it was intuition or my mind preparing me for the probable loss.

I am so grateful to have been in the contest and really appreciate the Amazon and PW reviews. For a free contest, I gained so many fantastic prizes.

But this week, I’m going to let myself feel the loss. Appreciate the previous wins. And know there’s another route to publication for me.

Beta Reading Reblog from JM McDowell

One of my favorite fellow bloggers, JM McDowell but together a fantastic series of posts on beta reading manuscripts. I’m still sinking under tech issues this week so I figured it was the perfect time to reblog her insightful post. Seriously, any writer who needs beta readers and any one who is a beta reader or planning to be one should check this out. She gives a terrific list of beta and writer do’s and dont’s.

A weekend of Tech Glitches

This is pretty much how my entire weekend has been. I thought switching from my MacBook Pro to a new MacBook Pro would be much easier than converting from a PC to Macbook Pro 5 years ago.

WRONG. So utterly wrong.

First mistake: Transferring files from Time Machine. I backed up everything to my external drive on Time Machine at noon Saturday. I should have had all my files there to transfer over. It took about an hour. But guess what? Some files didn’t transfer. Not new ones. But old ones. Scratching my head here.

I do not have time to do a file comparison of both laptops and determine what did and didn’t transfer over.
So I call Apple Tech support.

They advise me to set up a new profile and transfer from Mac to Mac.
They ask if I have a fire wire. NO um and if I should have one shouldn’t you have included one or added one on when I made my online purchase?!

Mistake #2: Trying to use wifi to transfer files. At first the computers wouldn’t talk. Then they start talking and tell me it will take 72 hours. 72 hours where I can’t use either computer. It drop to 40 but remains there for 9 hours.

Mistake #3: I attempt to buy a fire wire. I bring a photo of my old laptop fire wire slots and I bring the new laptop manual and I know its an 800 port. Great. Except Wallmart (which sells fire wires online) has none in the store. Despite selling laptops there. Then I go to Radioshack and they tell me the fire wires are sold based on pins (4, 6, or 9) and come in combos of 4 to 4, 6 to 6, 9 to 9, 4 to 6, 4 to 9, 6 to 9. They each sell for $35. I have no idea what an 800 port translates to in a pin system. Nor do they. Great.

Mistake #4: I start to add my pictures over and realize that won’t work because they are under the profile I will have to delete because that profile is an incomplete version of my files.

A third call to Apple Support gets me the translation of an 800 port being a 9 pin fire wire. They also look up what fire wire my old laptop takes. Turns out it’s also 9 pin.

So 24 hours into the setup process and nothing has been accomplished. Actually worse than nothing because I have to reset up everything. Beyond back to square one. I think I’m at square negative 10.

My dad picked up the fire wire Sunday afternoon, but hello Mother’s Day so I couldn’t work on this stupid crap. So now my laptop movement is put off until Monday when I have meetings. So Tuesday–nope plans. Maybe Wednesday. So beyond frustrating. Thank goodness I only do this once every 5 years. Otherwise, I would lose my freaking mind.

Character Defining Moments

A person’s true character is revealed in moments of crisis. It’s not just what they did, but how they handle the fallout of what they did. I’ve always believed this.

The past few weeks, I’ve been struggling with the end of a friendship.

When someone lies to me,  it breaks our bond of  trust. Their actions give me a reason to doubt what they say. And believing them made me a fool once already. Now, they’ve provided proof that they hid things from me. That they were dishonest. They they are capable of lying to my face.

That tears through me. But they are the one who lied to me. They are the one who took my trust and set it on fire.

They are the one that needed to apologize and make amends.

Instead, I got a couple apologies followed by a kiss-off letter.

They aren’t sure how or if they can regain my trust so they wish me luck with my life. I guess it’s easier to give up.

That tells me so much about them.

It confirms that they were a waste of my time. It shows that they are a coward. A liar who takes the easy way out. It defines who they are. And they are not someone worth knowing.

It’s an Earth-axis-reversing moment, when you realize someone you trusted has betrayed you. And when they turn on you, you realize that the person you knew isn’t there anymore.

They become a stranger. Which makes you wonder if you ever really knew them at all.

Despite struggling through this mess, I am incredibly happy with myself. Because I stood up to someone I loved and I refused to let them mistreat me. And I was honest. I said I might not be able to trust them again. I can’t predict if that wound will heal when it’s still hemorrhaging. But with time and work it might.

They chose to leave me bleeding. No offer of assistance. No holding my hand while the healing began.

That is a character defining moment.

Brenda Novak’s Charity Auction Prizes for Writers and Readers

Every May, Brenda Novak has an on-line auction to benefit diabetes research. This month long auction includes editor, agent, NYT bestselling author critiques of your query, synopsis, partial, and full manuscript. There are lunches with pubbed authors too. And signed books. And vacation getaways. Hundreds of items are listed there.

I won a few of the auctions back in in 2010. I got feedback on my first 50-100 pages of my manuscript from agents, editors, and published authors. Their feedback helped me rework the beginning and go on to enter that manuscript in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest, where I made semifinalist. I don’t think I would have spotted the issues without their feedback and made the tweaks necessary to get the manuscript in shape for this contest.

As part of my auction wins, I didn’t just receive written agent feedback. I got to do a half-hour follow-up call with two top notch agents–Jessica Faust and Scott Eagan. Being able to ask questions helped tremendously in interpreting their feedback.

The pubbed authors (Julie Kenner and Gemma Halliday) who critiqued my work still check in with me from time to time on my progress. They gave terrific feedback and made me feel a part of the writing community!

If you are at a place where your manuscript has been completed, revised, and revised a few more times and you can’t see anything else wrong with it–this is a great way to give to charity and get industry feedback.

Here’s where you find all the critiques for writer

If  you’re an insatiable reader, you might want to check out all the cool stuff for readers, which include signed ARCs and gift cards.

There’s also vacation getaways and Once in A Lifetime Experiences that might be your dream come true.

The auction lasts the entire month of May, but throughout the month there are different auctions opening and closing and some are open for very short periods, so make sure you check them out and bid for yourself and for diabetes research.

How Being a Semifinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest Has Improved My Life

1. Free congratulatory lunches with my closest friends!!! Thanks Ant and Lin for celebrating my successes with me. It’s amazing to have had decades of our life journey together.
2. The awesome reviews by fellow bloggers, family, personal friends, writing buddies, and unknown but always appreciated reviewers. You guys took the time to read my stuff and share your thoughts. That is so precious to me. As a writer, your support and feedback is invaluable. Thank you!
3. People now believe I am a writer. Despite the 5 years of writing, placing in an international contest gives me “Writing” creds.  What’s always been a serious venture to me is suddenly serious to others too.
4. I’ve made my parents proud. They took me to dinner to celebrate. But more importantly they’ve been supporting my writing for years and now they get to share in this “win” with me. Every round that I advanced we screamed and danced together. Except Dad, er, he doesn’t dance.
5. I’ve gotten a couple requests from agents on the novel.
6. It’s a definite confidence booster to have several individuals judge my work and move it forward in the contest.

MWA Symposium Panel–Debut Novelists Tell All

I apologize for the delay in posting my notes from the MWA Symposium. I was so tired last weekend from the whirlwind 3-day trip that I couldn’t put together my notes. There were several terrific panels. I plan to talk about 2-3 of them over the next two weeks so I don’t overwhelm you with my profuse notes.

A second apology, I have no photo of this panel. Mostly because Hank Philippi Ryan was such an electrifying moderator that she sucked me right into the discussion and I forgot to take a picture.

What impressed me most about this panel was that Hank took the time to read each author’s novel. She shared the perfect excerpt from each book too. Enough to wet the audiences’ whistle while leaving tons of time for Q&A with each author. Fantastic job!

The panel was composed of Edward Conlon, David Duffy, Leonard Rosen, Lori Roy, and Steve Ulfelder. Hank drew each author out of their shell and highlighted their writing strengths and their personalities. She made me want to buy a copy of  the panelists’ novels.

Hank opened with a question about how each author found out they were nominated for an Edgar. David mentioned he opened his computer and saw the email. Lori saw it in a press release. Steve found out via Twitter and hesitated to believe it until his agent and editor called simultaneously.

Hank introduced each novel and asked the author about their work. Lori Roy’s Bent Road was called ominous and creepy–gothic. Lori said it sprang up out of the setting. Western Kansas can be beautiful or brutally harsh. Lori mentioned that she can’t outline.

Ed wrote his book because of his everyday experiences as a cop. He discussed the difference between motive vs. motivation. Writers want to know why.  But this need to understand means writers must go deeper into motive. Something he grappled with is characters where you don’t want to go. Do you really want to understand a rapist?

Steve loves to race cars. He equates writing with driving a race car. In a race, it’s 30-45 minutes on the track, but it feels like two minutes. Something similar happens when he’s writing. The walls fall away and he have no idea where he is.

David drew on classic detective stories. Except his protagonist is a Russian guy, named Turbo. BTW, that name has a fantastic backstory in the novel.

What was interesting was that all these writers had full lives before they wrote their first novel. None of them are fresh out of college.

None of the authors has their title first. Most had different working titles.

Len mentioned that he had a hard time with his title. He stressed that the title of your book must be your whole book.

Ed talked about how most people tell cops stories. When someone lies, the cop has to decide whether it matters or not.

Overall, an exceptional panel discussion. I can’t wait to read all their books.

And a quick shout out to my amazing lunch companions, David  H. Ingram, winner of the Edgars Robert L. Fish Award  for his short story “A Good Man of Business,” and Jackie Sherbow of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Terrific people to go browse a bookstore with too.

Old School Storytelling–Gotye’s Song

 

Gotye’s song Somebody That I Used to Know has blown up. I have a theory about why.

The lyrics harken back to the origins of songs as tools of storytelling. This song gives us clear insight into the male and female characters. We learn about their relationship. How it collapsed. Their takes on what went wrong and the fallout.

I can see the events play out in my mind when I hear this song.

And therein lies the brilliance. Music as a form of storytelling. I feel like I read a short story when I read the lyrics.

Such clear character development and plot. There is a beginning, a middle and an end to their story.

What do you think? Am I on to something? Or is it something else?

Book Review–The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees is a phenomenal story about finding love and a family in unexpected places. Sue Monk Kidd is my idol. I aspire to write on her level someday.

Here’s my annotated version of the Barnes and Noble overview:

“Lily Owens’ life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily’s fierce-hearted “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, insults three of the town’s fiercest racists (in 1964 South Carolina), Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon—a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household.”

I was entranced by the writing.

I fell in love with every single character so much so that I wanted to know what happened to them after the book ended. As if I didn’t quite believe they lived only inside the pages of this novel.

Though this is a character driven novel, the plot is strong and kept me wondering what would happen next.

Here are some of my favorite lines from the book…

“But you can’t talk yourself out of anger. Either you are angry or you’re not.”

“Sometimes things of magnitude settle over you with excruciating slowness.”

If I had to describe this book in one word?

Life-changing.