Tag Archives: New Jersey

Are you in the Central Jersey Area? Author’ Panel Saturday

Posted on February 20, 2013 | 8 Comments

‘I’VE FINISHED MY FIRST DRAFT, NOW WHAT?’
Local authors share tips and information on getting published in today’s market (organized by the New Jersey Authors Network: http://www.njauthorsnetwork.com).

So you’ve finished the writing your book/story, or have you?

What (if any) revision work needs doing?


Where can you go for feedback?

How will you know when it’s ready to send out, and where should you try first?

Join New Jersey Authors, Jon Gibbs (moderator); Kristin Battestella; Karen Bostrom; Jennifer Eaton; Jim ‘JJ’ Lair, and Nicole Zoltack, for a fun, informative discussion on getting published in today’s market, and find out why typing ‘THE END’ is really just the beginning.

See you there for a great discussion!

JenniFer_Eaton Sparkle__F

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My First Speaking Appearance as an author!

Posted on February 14, 2013 | 19 Comments

Yeah, I’m quaking in my boots.

I’m also excited and hope to have a great time.  If anyone is in the Southern New Jersey area, I’d love it if you stopped by to say hi!

(I’ll take great vibes, too from those of you too far to travel) :-)

Saturday, February 16th, 1:00

Millville Public Library

“Love in the Afternoon”

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The Devastation of Hurricane Sandy – The cleanup is not over.

Posted on January 16, 2013 | 12 Comments

As many of you know, the lagoon in the backyard of the home that I grew up in rose about twenty feet during Hurricane Sandy.  Our house (where my sister currently lives) was spared  with about $30,000 worth of damage.  Her neighbors where not so lucky.  It’s unbelievable what a few inches of height in a foundation can do.

But we haven’t heard much about it lately, have we?  Yesterdays news, right?  Here are pictures that were taken just a few days ago, after the National Guard started letting people back in.

For many, the memory of Sandy is far from gone.

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Posted in Senseless Ranting, Uncategorized

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Yay! My First Character Interview! Jump into the head of Emily in Last Winter Red.

Posted on December 23, 2012 | 3 Comments

Are ya looking for Romancing Your E-Reader? 25 Ebooks Up for grabs! Click Here to Enter!

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Oh My Gosh! I am so excited for today’s post because I’m not being interviewed today… my character Emily from Last Winter Red is being interviewed by Susan Rocan. I’ve never done this before, and I am so excited to sit down and get into her head, and answer questions from someone living in this century.

This was such a hoot! I really hope you enjoy it. Please hop on over and step into the mind of a woman who lives in my Dystopian world of Last Winter Red from the Make Believe Anthology.

Oh! And if you’d like to see Susan’s Review of Last Winter Red, you can check it out Here. Two for the price of one! Yay!

Enjoy!

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Make BelieveFor The Love Of Christmas CoverWhy all the hullabaloo? Well, it’s to promote my two new releases “Make Believe” and “For the Love of Christmas”

That’s why!

And don’t forget to click on “Enter to Win” for a chance to win your choice of the two titles! Yay!

Oh, I almost forgot… A few random commentors along the tour path will win their choice of anthologies, too. So be sure to hop on over and say “Hi”

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Hop on over and send me some love!

Click on over to see Emily’s interview on Mywithershins

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Visit my Anthology buddies! They are celebrating too!

Jenny Keller Ford

J.A. Belfield

Kelly Said

Lynda R. Young

Terri Rochenski

Janelle Lee

Dani-Lyn Alexander

JenniFer_EatonF

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Hurricane Sandy Update – My hometown isn’t there anymore

Posted on November 1, 2012 | 34 Comments

I had a post all set for today, but I’ll send it to you some other time.

This is one of those events that really puts your life into perspective.  I finally got in touch with my sister today.  She lives on the water at the Jersey Shore, in my home town.

She evacuated to my brother’s house, where there was little damage.  They are just without power.

Yesterday, she drove through what she called a “war zone” and got as close to her house (the house I grew up in) as she could.  She then had to wade through hip-high water for several blocks just to see if the house was still there.

Luckily it was still standing, but the waters had surged over 20 feet higher than normal and flooded the basement and garage. She was very lucky.

My home town is flooded several miles inland.  The church I got married in is under water.  The elementary school I went to is still under water and probably a total loss.

My nephew took a canoe out toward the ocean and got as far as he cold before the national guard stopped him.  A huge house floated down the canal and rammed into the bridge that separates the beach side of town from the boro side.  The ocean/beach starts at the base of the bridge now.  Miles of houses between the bridge and the former line of the ocean are under water or just plain gone. The boardwalk where I worked as a teenager is not there anymore.  Structures that are standing are past repair.  Highways suddenly stop and turn into beach.  Where there are still roads, she said she couldn’t navigate because so many trees are down.  She called the street my husband used to live on “a war zone”

Seaside Heights and Bay head are still on fire.  Some houses survived, but now they are burning because there is a river of water between them and the rescue workers.  The national guard is just trying to get any survivors to the other side of the bridges.

My sister is a hospice nurse, and has been working since Saturday relocating/evacuating/saving patients.  She then worked on finding homes/shelters for eight of her coworkers whose houses are a complete loss.  One of her friends is missing.  She waded to the girl’s house, but it wasn’t there anymore. It was just gone.

This is insane.  This is the type of thing you hear about in movies, or see on the news in “other places”.  This kind of thing does not happen in your home town.

I feel so incredibly lucky to have suffered so little damage where I am.  So many lives will be changed forever.

Please pray or send positive energy to all those effected by this horrible storm.

It is very surreal, knowing that the places you grew up with, the places where you worked and played … are just not there anymore.

 

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Posted in Senseless Ranting

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Work in Progress Challenge Part two. And I Promise to be honest

Posted on September 28, 2012 | 19 Comments

Okay… here we go.  If you are wondering about the title, I don’t want to get into it again.  Check out my post from yesterday (or click here)

First, Thanks to Roger Colby at Writing is Hard Work for forcing me to do this giving me this opportunity.  Roger’s novel “This Broken Earth (The U.S. Of After)” is available now.  Please check it out.

Without further ado… Here is the Work In Progress Challenge.

1.        What is the Title of you Work In Progress?

Oh yay!  That’s an easy one.  Well, Maybe not.  The novel I am polishing up right now it is tentatively called Fire in the Woods.  But I am also considering “115 Degrees of Perfect”  I could explain either title, but if I did, I’d have to kill ya, ‘cause it’s top secret stuff at the moment.

2.       Where did the idea for the WIP come from?

Oddly enough, I got this idea over a weekend while considering another project.  Jenny Keller Ford cued me in on an anthology.  At the time, all she knew was it needed to be a HEA or HFN (Happily ever after, or Happy for Now) and under 10,000 words.  My brain stewed on this over the weekend, and what I came up with was the premise of Fire in the Woods.

However, I was unable to use it because when I actually saw the writing prompt (it was a picture of a woman in red standing in the snow) it just wasn’t a fit (Which is okay, because Last Winter Red, the story I did write to fit that picture – is being published)

Anyway… This original idea was squiggling and poking me for a few months until I had to write it or give up my sanity.  I’m glad I didn’t try to write this in 10,000 words, though.  The story is too complex.

3.       What Genre would your WIP fall under?

Hmmm.  This could be a tough question.  I want to say Sci-Fi, but when people think of Sci-Fi they drum up images of Star Trek and Star Wars.  That’s not what this really is.

I think it is really more like a Contemporary Urban Fantasy.  It takes place in present-day New Jersey (in the USA)  The main character is a seventeen year old girl, who gets taken on a roller coaster ride when she meets a mysterious boy in the woods.

4.       Which actors would you choose to play characters in a movie rendition?

This is a question that I usually try to avoid.  One reason is that I do watch movies, but I don’t pay attention to actors/actresses names as much as I used to.  In this case, though, I can answer it for at least one character.  The character of David could definitely be played by Taylor Lautner.  Jess and Maggie (two characters) actually mention how much he looks like Taylor.

Maggie is a bouncy haired-pretty blonde eighteen year old.  Anyone want to fill in the blanks?

Jess, the main character, is a little conservative, but I purposely gave her the “any girl” appeal.  The reason is, that Fire in the Woods is written in first person (that means she refers to herself as “I”)  Since I was using this POV, I wanted anyone reading to be able to fit themselves in her shoes.  So, in answer to this question… she would have to be a no-name actress so people could look at the screen and see “anonymous”.  This would help keep them in the story as the “I” character (Did that even remotely make sense?)

5.       What is a one-sentence synopsis of your WIP?

ERGHHH.  Admitting to skipping this and coming back to it later.

***

Okay, I’m back.  One sentence, huh? ERGH!  I hate things like this, but everyone really should do this.  You need to be able to spit out your plot in one sentence if anyone asks you in passing.  Especially for that random publisher you might meet in line at the grocery store – Don’t laugh… it does happen.  Why not be ready?

Okay, yes, I’m stalling.  **sigh** okay, here we go…

Fire in the Woods is about a teenage girl who meets a boy in the woods, and ends up on a roller coaster ride chase across New Jersey to save the boy, and ultimately, the world.

Hey!  That actually sounded pretty good.  Yay for me!

At this point, I am going to stop because I know that I frequently don’t have time to read really long posts.  So in honor of your time, I will finish this up tomorrow, when I’ll answer some really odd questions.  And maybe you can help me with a few.  ???

Until then …

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Jon Gibbs’s Ten things I wish I knew… Final Thoughts – Thanks Jon!

Posted on September 21, 2012 | 15 Comments

Here are a few quotes from Jon Gibbs that I thought were good little snippets everyone could use.

Thank you again, Jon, for your words of wisdom, and for going out of your way to help aspiring authors to Learn from your Mistakes

1.        Dealing with shyness – He is shy.  He is afraid of public appearances.  To get through it, he imagines his grandmother saying “Okay go home – you will disgrace all your ancestors but that’s fine.”  It helps him to trudge on.

2.       Figure out what works best for you and then do that a lot

3.       Write what you like, even if it seems out of date.  If you enjoy it, someone else will, too.

4.       Winning a contest (small) and putting it in your query letter makes you look like a newbie.  Major awards are okay, though.

5.       Writer’s digest may seem good, but you have to pay to submit.  Don’t pay to submit.

6.       Slush readers trash “Dark and stormy night” openers and don’t read to the next line.

7.       Jon learns more about writing listening to others critique his writing.

8.       Young Adult needs a romantic element to be marketable*

*This is what a publisher told Jon when he was selling Fur Face as YA.  However, a friend of mine was just asked by a publisher to remove the romantic element because it made them uncomfortable.  You never know.

Jon Gibbs is the author of one of my son’s favorite books:  FUR-FACE, which was nominated for a Crystal Kite Award.

Jon is an Englishman transplanted to New Jersey, USA, where he is an ‘author in residence’ at Lakehurst Elementary School.  Jon is the founding member of The New Jersey Author’s Network and FindAWritingGroup.com.

Jon blogs at jongibbs.livejournal.com

Website: www.acatofninetales.com

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Jon Gibbs’s Ten things I wish I knew before I was published #10: Interaction is the name of the game

Posted on September 14, 2012 | 13 Comments

How you interact with others will have a HUGE impact on your careers

  • Join your first writing group ASAP and join as many as you can
  • Find other authors who might help you
  • Go to Writers conferences – You can meet people who can help you.  They might tell you where a conference is and you may meet someone there (agent publisher)
  • Remember, you will get a lot of useless information
  • But also remember, you will get some great information as well.

Note:  The above are Jon Gibb’s main speaking points, with my rambling opinions attached.

Jon Gibbs is the author of one of my son’s favorite books:  FUR-FACE, which was nominated for a Crystal Kite Award.

Jon is an Englishman transplanted to New Jersey, USA, where he is an ‘author in residence’ at Lakehurst Elementary School.  Jon is the founding member of The New Jersey Author’s Network and FindAWritingGroup.com.

Jon blogs at jongibbs.livejournal.com

Website: www.acatofninetales.com

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Jon Gibbs’s Ten things I wish I knew before I was published #9: Savor the Moment

Posted on September 7, 2012 | 18 Comments

Be excited when your work gets accepted.

Allow yourself to be excited when someone says they like your novel.  Let that feeling of pride cover you for a while.  You deserve it.

Enjoy “nice” rejection letters.  Some will say they liked it but it was not a good fit for them.  Take that as a vote of confidence.  Hand written or personalized rejections mean you are doing well… they took the time to respond rather than sending out a form letter.  If they do this, they saw something of value in your work.

Rejection is inevitable.  It can make you sad.  When you get a little victory, remember to celebrate.  I recommend chocolate.  It always works for me!

Note:  The above are Jon Gibb’s main speaking points, with my rambling opinions attached.

Jon Gibbs is the author of one of my son’s favorite books:  FUR-FACE, which was nominated for a Crystal Kite Award.

Jon is an Englishman transplanted to New Jersey, USA, where he is an ‘author in residence’ at Lakehurst Elementary School.  Jon is the founding member of The New Jersey Author’s Network and FindAWritingGroup.com.

Jon blogs at jongibbs.livejournal.com

Website: www.acatofninetales.com

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Jon Gibbs’s Ten things I wish I knew before I was published #8: Write what you know

Posted on August 31, 2012 | 20 Comments

Write what you know / write what they know.

Look around to see who has just published a book in your genre that is doing well NOW. This will show you what the market is currently handling. If a story is in a magazine, it is good. They had to go through the same submission process you have. Look at what they did. How does it differ from yours? How is it the same?

I’ve been trying to take this advice. I look at novels published by a publishing house I am interested in, and many times I shake my head. It’s hard.

Since I submitted to an anthology recently, I decided to read one (I’ve never read an anthology before). I was surprised. The stories were more like excerpts than stand-alone stories, and two of them ended in a way that actually made me mad. (No ending)

Was I going to write my short like that? No way!

Also, people have noted lack of emotion in my characters. So I look for emotion in recently published work, and Dang it I can’t find any! I mean, I get an idea of how they feel, and I think I am doing the same thing. Ugh. I just don’t know sometimes.

It’s really hard to read something and translate it into your own work… But when I do read something I like, I highlight it for reference later. I do try to learn from anything good that I read. But I learn even more from the bad stuff I read :-)

Note: The above are Jon Gibb’s main speaking points, with my rambling opinions attached.

Jon Gibbs is the author of one of my son’s favorite books: FUR-FACE, which was nominated for a Crystal Kite Award.

Jon is an Englishman transplanted to New Jersey, USA, where he is an ‘author in residence’ at Lakehurst Elementary School. Jon is the founding member of The New Jersey Author’s Network and FindAWritingGroup.com.

Jon blogs at jongibbs.livejournal.com

Website: www.acatofninetales.com

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Posted in Author Advice, Biggest Mistakes New Writers Make, General Writing Tips, Ten things I wish I knew

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