Tag Archives: Literature

Six Sentence Sunday – “And the Nightinglae Sang” by Kip Wilson

I recently purchased the anthology “Timeless, An Anthology of Young Adult Romance.”  Here are six sentences from one of those stories: “And the Nightingale Sang” by Kip Wilson

In this passage, our heroine is meeting the boy she loves for the first time in months.  He is a traveling minstrel, and a poet, and she is as in love with his music as she is in love with him.  Take it away, Kip!

Photo from my Goodreads list

“I would as gladly be a rose as a lily, if it gave me the chance to live in your poetry,” I said, waiting for him to offer me more.  Had he figured out my wish?

“You will most certainly find a home in my poems one day,” he murmured into my ear, “but for now I want you in my arms–as a real girl. How I have missed you, my love.”

Our time apart vanished in an instant, and I became his.

Awe!  Are you feeling the love?

For more sets os six from published works  as well as works in progress, check out the Six Sentence Sunday Site.

http://www.sixsunday.com/

The Big Announcement! Writing to a Deadline AGAIN #4 The Big Announcement!

I am so excited to announce that I’ve just signed a contract with Still Moments Publishing to have my story Connect the Dots included in their 2012 Christmas Anthology.

This is totally unbelievable.  In January, I posted a big boisterous banner proclaiming that I WOULD BE PUBLISHED by the end of 2012.  It was quite a lofty goal for me, and now I will have two stories coming out this year.

I’m giddy with glee.

Hey, Canada.  Look South.  See that big bright light down in the USA?  That’s me smiling!

Oh, guys.  This is just so dern cool.  You have no idea.

Click here to see my query blurb and promo page for Connect the Dots.  Yeah, No explosions.  I was a good girl for Christmas.

Writing to a Deadline AGAIN? You betcha!

Yes, I placed myself in the clutches of a publisher’s deadline AGAIN.  I didn’t expect to. It wasn’t planned.  It just kind of happened.  Here’s the scoop…

About two months ago a writing buddy of mine Terri Rochenski announced that she was submitting to an anthology. I looked up the publisher.  They only did Romance.

WARNING WARNING DANGER WILL ROBINSON!

I giggled.  Despite the fact that there was a romantic element in LAST WINTER RED, I knew that writing a straight Romance was not for me… and I was having so much fun blowing stuff up writing FIRE IN THE WOODS that I didn’t really want to take the time to start something new.

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Anyway… A month later she put out feelers for beta readers.  A little niggle gnawed at my gut, poking and peeling until guilt set in.

The little writing demon inside me smacked me upside the head…  Who cares that it’s Romance!  You just missed an opportunity.

The overachiever in me flipped back to the publisher’s web-site. There were still five weeks until the submission date.

Five weeks…

Is that long enough to come up with a story, outline, write, beta, edit and submit?

Honestly… No it wasn’t.  Did I try anyway?

OF COURSE I DID!

I’m not going to draw this out… I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that I have already submitted a story to this publisher within the timeframe, and I managed to get it in a week early.

So, How’d I do it?  Just to not make this post too long, I’ll tell you tomorrow.  Be there or be square!

Jon Gibbs’s Ten things I wish I knew before I was published #6: Belay that Opinion, Captain.

Your writing is not as god or as bad as you think. If you think you are the best author out there, you probably aren’t. If you are sure you stink, you probably don’t. (At least maybe not as bad as you think)

You are probably somewhere in-between.  Even published authors are not the greatest writers ever.  They just came up with something that resonated with someone.

If you love what you do, move forward with it.  If you are good, someone will stand up and take notice.

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

Road to Publication #12: My Author page – Somewhere other than HERE!

Wow.  Pinch me.  Every little step of this process that happens “in the public eye” that propels me closer to publication just makes me tingle.  Honestly, it does.

I feel like a little girl playing dress up.

You know how you lay in bed and dream at night of pretty photos of you, and interviews, and all that?  I mean, it’s starting to happen.

I know it’s not like Oprah has called or anything.  This is just an anthology release, not a best-selling novel, but I’m seeing things I’ve only dreamed about come true… if that makes any sense.

This is a big one for me… my author page.  This is the first time I have been featured somewhere OTHER THAN on my own web-site.  I know it is stupid, but I made a shortcut to it, and I keep clicking on it to make sure it’s still there.

Here’s the link if you’d like to take a look.  Come on, click me.  You know you want to.  I think I’ll pop over too, just in case…

Yep, it’s still there.  I am an official J.Taylor Publishing author.  Yep, that’s me.

Wow.  So cool.

Yay! It’s my favorite Day of the Week! It’s Write a Story with Me day! Part Five

Write a Story with Me! Is going full-throttle.

Are we having fun yet!  The answer is “Yes!”

So… What’s happened so far?

Part 1: Twelve year old Marci picked a leaf off a hallowed tree.

Part 2: She runs home and sees her pregnant mother and little sister Lauren greeting her father’s flying ship, one of the Planetary Raiders from a long voyage.  Marci gives the leaf to Janelle, a tiny person who emerges from a hole in the floor.

Part 3: Bethany (and older sister) is introduced. She is the villain of our story, and very jealous of her sister Marci.  She sneaks back home from greeting her father, and eavesdrops on Marci.  She discovers the illegal fairy, and prepares to use the information against her sister.

Part 4: Bethany is carted off by fairies.  A big scary beetle-fairy tells Janelle she has to come back to the nest with him. (He’s Janelle’s brother.  Janelle wants to start a new fairy nest, but her brother (Janosc) does not want her to do it, because a fairy queen is like an ant queen. Janelle says they need to start a new nest because their world is in danger.

Part 5: The next installment comes from the wonderful Miss Eileen Snyder.  No need to click a link this week.  We are posting right here!  Take it away Eileen!

Jodi looked up from the book she read and began to rub her eyes hard to a watery end. The street bench had grown rigid and hard and she shifted her weight and stretched her entire body with an audible yawn.  She plucked her eyeglasses from the crown of her head and with a minor adjustment they fit her face again.  She didn’t need them for reading; in fact she didn’t need them at all.
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 Unexpectantly, a wistful March wind tunneled the entire length of Carlisle Street. Jodi turned toward the breeze to feel it touch her skin, it was refreshing. She caught sight of the unbridled ivy leaves fluttering against the brick of antique row homes that lined the narrow easement, not much wider than an alleyway and paved in blue cobblestones, the window boxes were decorated with cold weather pansies, bright yellow and purple. Their beauty was evident but their genus was no match for the encroaching ivy that clung steadfast to the masonry bricks of Colonial Philadelphia.
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She thought of her favorite book on Greek mythology, when the Sirens of Circe flapped their leaf like wings to intimidate Odysseus and his shipmates. What lie in a hardy leaf, what purpose a leaf if it bears no flower? Does it not nourish the bud? Yet, its shiny veneer was a fitting contrast to the flat, red brick. Perhaps, a leaf does have powers!

Now It’s time to scoot on over to the Nederland’s with Mysocalleddutchlife’s Mikaela Wire for the next installment. Mikaela gets to figure out who the heck this girl is, and what Colonial Philadelphia has to do with flying ships, and fairies.  Well, I guess it all has to tie in to that leaf from installment #1. Ummm… Okay, Mikaela… better you then me.

Tag Mikaela!  You are “It”.

Here are the previous installments:

Part One – Jennifer M Eaton

Part Two – Jenny Keller Ford

Part Three – Susan Roebuck

Part Four by — Elin Gregory

Stop by next Tuesday to see what happens next!

Biggest Mistakes New Writers Make #3: Nope, you can’t explain yourself. Sorry, not allowed!

At a recent Author’s panel discussion, Jonathan Maberry, Mike McPhail, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Jon Gibbs, Jennifer R. Hubbard, and Kristin Battestella discussed the biggest mistakes they believe writers make.

Mike McPhail commented that you CANNOT explain your novel to people.

Think about that. 

What Mike said is that you are not going to be there to explain anything about your novel.  It needs to stand on its own with no questions.  If it can’t stand on its own, you are not going to find a publisher (and remember, he’s a publisher as well as a writer)

I recently read a review from a “self-published” author that said:  “Just get through the first few chapters… you’ll be glad you did.”

I can’t help but wonder if they asked a friend to say that… This is probably why they self-published.  Why would you start your novel out weak?  Personally, if I’m not engaged in the first few pages, the book goes back on the shelf.

I wonder if this person ever had beta readers.

Note:  I would never let a beta-read pass with a bad first page, let alone a bad first few chapters.  That’s like literary suicide in my book.

Make sure your novel can stand on its own, and for goodness sake, if you feel like you have to apologize for your first few chapters CHANGE THEM!

Jonathan Maberry:  www.Jonathanmaberry.com

Mike McPhail:  www.mcp-concepts.com

Danielle Ackley-McPhail:  www.sidhenadaire.com

Jon Gibbs:  www.acatofninetales.com

Jennifer R. Hubbard:  www.jenniferhubbard.com

Kristin Battestella:  www.jsnouff.com/kristin

The Road to Publication #4: Meeting Other Authors

When the gads of information started coming in from my publisher, one of the “neat little perks” was the key to the background of J. Taylor Publishing’s Website.

No… not the part where I can re-program it, silly… the password protected part.  Grooving around there, I found a forum… and low and behold I saw “Welcome new Author Jennifer M. Eaton”

Hmmmm… 

Of course I opened it up, and there was an email string of all the other JTP authors congratulating me and welcoming me on-board.  [[Grins]]

It’s pretty neat, having informal conversations with authors whose novels I have read.  I’m also getting to know the other authors in the anthology pretty well:  (Lynda R. Young, Kelly Said, Terri Rochenski, and Jenny Keller Ford (Who I already knew) not to mention Headline Author J.A. Belfield.

Getting to know them is nice, since we are all “in the same boat” at the same time, struggling against exactly the same deadlines to get our anthology out on time.

Right now, most of us have done the required final author edit on our manuscripts and handed them in for review by the J. Taylor editors.  I can’t wait for the flurry of chatter when the editors’ comments come back.

The Cover Reveal-Seeing your name on a book jacket for the first time.

***Woa.***

So, I was rattling through my email the other day, and my buddy Jenny Keller Ford sends me a message saying: “Did you see the cover with your name on it yet?”

So, yeah, I scrambled through all my emails, searching frantically, and low and behold… there it was.

The contract felt pretty real, but let me tell you—seeing your name in big bold print with cover art…

I called my kids in.  My five-year old said, “Oh, okay.  Can I have a snack?”

The Monomaniacal Middle Grade Reviewer looked at it, gave me a hug, and went on about his business.

My eight year old, Thank Goodness, stared at it with wide eyes and a big poop-eating grin on his face, saying, “That is soooo cool!”

Later on, my husband came home and finally got to see it.  I can’t remember his exact words, but it was something like, “Wow.  This is real, isn’t it?”

I think he actually needed something to validate it in his mind.   I tried to explain what an anthology was, but until he saw the cover, I don’t think he actually “got it.”

So, without further ado, here is the cover for the Make Believe Anthology.

So, what do you think?  Pretty cool, huh?

Reining in the The Monomaniacal Middle Grade Reviewer – A Review of Fur Face by Jon Gibbs

I found out why The Monomaniacal Middle Grade Reviewer stopped doing reviews.  He read “Fur Face” by Jon Gibbs, and really enjoyed it.  However, he knew I wanted him to review it, but he was embarrassed to do one because he met the author at a recent book signing.

“Well, did you like the story?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Then what are you worried about?”

I got the lip… If you’re a parent, you know what that means.

He was just self-conscious about it because he was afraid of what he would look like in front of an author that he feels like he knows, even though his review would be positive.

Note to self:  Introduce the MMGR to authors AFTER he has given the review.

Anyway… The MMGR’s review of Fur Face was:

(I’m paraphrasing from several conversations over the last several weeks)

It was really good.  It was about this cat that can talk, who has to find a kid that can understand him to help him do what he has to do.

(Trying not to drop a spoiler there)

He mentioned an intricate plot that would be hard to describe.  There was lots of funny stuff and action, and a big mystery about animals that had to be saved.  (Right up his alley)

I didn’t get a star rating on Fur Face, but book two is on his list of “I gotta have it” books.

Now that we’re over that hurdle… The Monomaniacal Middle Grade Reviewer should be returning to the blogosphere very shortly.  Yay!