WHAT? I can’t say anything!

That doesn’t mean I can’t be sneaky and post a link to the thing I can’t mention on my blog. Look for something to your right that kicks butt.

Need more of a clue?

A Call 4 Action, and the Top 10 Most Motivational Songs 4 Writers (at least the ones I could think of last night)

Do you know Mike Mullin? He is author of YA book Ashfall out via Tanglewood  this October and I am absolutely in love with him. (As a writer and friend,not that other way which would get us both on trouble.)

Incase you haven’t been paying attention, recently Mike announced that Ashfall had been chosen by the American Booksellers for Children's 2011 New Voices project. Like ten books win that award, so way to go Mike!

Anyway I told you that, to tell you this: Barnes & Noble is not currently planning on carrying Ashfall. I know, it’s a travesty. So since the book is currently available to preorder on their website, we are trying to amass a large enough order to make them change their mind.

Help the cause, preorder here:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ashfall-mike-mullin/1101373486?ean=9781933718552&itm=1&usri=ashfall

Then let me know if the comments if you did. You never know, I might enter the people who do into a little contest of my own

Now on to something not quite as cavity inducing.

The TOP 10 Most MOTIVATION songs 4 Writers
(In no particular order.)

1. Coffee’s for Closers by Fall Out Boy. FOB is one of my favorite bands of all time, and that’s because their lyrics are AWESOME.

Reasons I think this song is motivational:
The title- You guys might not know this but I majored in Drama in college and was highly involved in theatre from the age of 11. A whole year before I wrote my first book. Coffee’s for Closers is an often done monologue. But that’s why it’s motivational for me. The lyrics are what I think should help you.

“I will never believe in anything again.” I can’t count the number of times I have been disillusioned as a writer. How many times I lost my belief in the process, myself, anything. I have felt that I would never believe in anything again, I have been so wounded, so crushed, so lost. But making sure you do is really the only way you can succeed. “I want everything.” What’s the matter? Don’t you?“Preach electric to a microphone stand.” They are making a reference to what they do in their band, but I think about what it’s like being a writer in the world of social networking. Can I get a hallelujah? Oh wait… that’s another FOB song.  “I’m a mascot for what you’ve become and oh oh I love the mayhem more than the love.” I feel like the internet is changing me into someone else… I don’t think I can stop it, and I am not sure I would even if I could. Sometime love the insanity that comes from being the hopeless artistic type more than anything else.

2. Livin’ on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. Because doesn’t that what it feel like being a writer to you?

“Cause it doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not.” Because it doesn’t, if you are a writer you are a writer. No matter what anyone else tells you it is who you are, it is what you feel and no one else can take that away. “For love, we’ll give it a shot.” Every single day of our lives. “You live for the fight when that is all that you got.” Sometimes I think if I let the world stop me for just a minute. I would never pick myself back up. So I keep fighting for Angela the writer and hope it pays off, because with out that I have NOTHING.

3. The Hook by Blues Traveler I hear that word WAY to often in the world of writing, so it’s all too appropriate.

“It doesn’t matter what I say so long as I sing it with inflection. That makes you feel what I’ll convey, some inner trust of vast reflection.” How many times have you heard it’s the VOICE that really matters? (On a unrelated note I got a rejection today from an agent that said she loved the voice but that it was too similar to something else on her list) “Because the hook brings you back.” It sure does. Actually those whole SONG has a lot to do about writing. I mean “suck it in suck it in if your rin tin tin or Anne Boleyn.” REALLY

4.Eye of the Tiger by Survivor and I am not really going to explain that one, I think you already know why. But I will say that KAREN got that song stuck in my head for like six months.

5. Born for This by Paramore

“Oh, I just keep on falling, back to the same old. Where’s hope when misery comes crawling.” This it what I feel like every time I have a set back. “With your faith, you’ll trigger a land slide. (Victory)” I can always hope so. “Tell me, do you feel the pressure now?” YEP  “We were born for this”

6. White Blank Page by Mumford & Sons I know this song is about love, but what I think about when I hear white blank page is what I feel when I have a new project “Her white blank page & a swelling rage, rage
You did not think when you sent me to the brink, the brink
You desired my attention but denied my affections, affections” Doesn’t your muse feel that way to you?

7.Man of la Mancha by Linda Elder

Few books will ever have such characters as Don Quixote. If you get a chance google all the lyrics, but a man that fights wind mills? That is motivational. “Onward to glory I go!”

8.Let’s Kill Tonight or Tonight Tonight by Panic! At the Disco who BTW is my favorite band of all time. I start every night/evening writing session with this song these days.

“If I retreat. Words, wars, and symphonies.” “Let’s kill tonight! Kill tonight! Show them all you’re not the ordinary type!” Who among us wants to be ordinary? Knock em dead kids.

Anyway there were two songs that vanished off my playlist this morning and are now unavailable so here are youtube videos of them in their place.

They are C’mon by Panic! At the Disco & FUN.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST VAMPIRE MONEY

And You Thought You Were Done With Standardized Tests

I often make this comparison out loud, but I never have blogged about it. Query letters are standardized tests for writers.

I’m from Texas y’all—and even though I’ve lived from sea to shining sea there are some things you never forget.

Do you remember standardized tests for writing? Follow the same drab five paragraph format or lest you be FAILED. You must include these EXACT things in each paragraph or lest you be FAILED TWICE. You had a page and a half in which to do this, girlie hand writing be damned. Artistic flare? I don’t even think so.

That’s how I feel about query letters. I feel like no matter how good your content is, you’re sunk if you don’t follow their rules. Only for the standardized test people are forced to teach you how to take it, for query letters it’s more of a crap shoot, because not every agent is dealing with the same set of rules.

Sure, there are some things you absolutely must do—but how? Execution is everything, and when not everyone is looking for the same important bits and you are forced to shove complex story lines and many many words into only a handful of paragraphs you have to use a combination of generalized plot points and exciting pieces.

And yes, there are some experts out there that can teach you how to play the game. What to say and when, and that may improve your odds.But these kings and queens of the query letter often disagree about the best way to do things, or what exactly is the query crux.

Don’t forget your #2 pencil.

Personalities or Pigeon Holes

Ever notice how successful writers tend to write the same ‘types’ of books? I can think of exceptions, but for the most part authors tend to stick within closely related genres.

The doe eyed side of me wants to believe that’s because they want to write that kind of book. It is not a stretch to believe an author would prefer a specific genre, or feel more comfortable with one. BUT, the cynical side of me, the side that reads about the world of publishing every. single. day. knows it’s probably because they have been pigeonholed into whatever they were first successful in. 

I worry about this, almost obsessively.

But why Angela? Don’t you only write Paranormal Romance books?

HA HA nope.

Last year, I wrote at least one book for four different “Smart” boy book series. Barneby Knotts—which you can see the many first pages of here:

http://bit.ly/ro2ArM

The Notorious Dogoodes: In a world where super heroes exist, Teddy DoGoode is not one of them.

Red Zeppelin and the Books of Tomorrow: Ottie and Everett quest to save the real books of the outer lands before they are recycled. Alt: 2 kids fight book banning and the e-books of the future.

Heroes & Vallenez: Vic Vallenez is not a Villain, but he’s not a saint either. When you sell information to the highest bidder, certain hazards come with the job.

Then this year, so far all I have written is young adult novels.

Pigments of My Imagination which is a paranormal romance, smart boy boy hybrid. It’s got the eternal romance with enough plot twist to make it another Da Vinci Code prequel. But I digress, it is not a paranormal romance, and neither is the book I am writing for the 3 Day Novel Contest working title: SCORNED

Here are some upcoming and current YA novels that are not para/supernatural.

Cloakers: Ancient Mayans believed some animals had the power to cloak themselves as human, and they should know, they created them.

Those Damned DeLeons: 3 brothers sell the temporary possession of their souls to the king of the underworld to repay their father’s debt. It does not end well.

Now since I know you were wondering, here are the true paranormal romance titles:

Skeleton Lake: Skeletons do regret. Drowning was the easy part. The beautiful but ghastly bones of broken boys & false flesh are now Marlow's whole world.

Place Holder Title: “Vampire Money” which I will talk about in an upcoming vlog/blog

Desdemona: A book that will effectively have taken me 10 years to write when it’s done, and I am still not good enough for it.

To see where everything falls on the Angela WRITE Now spectrum I have created a handy chart:

I am banking on some of you guys being Percy Jackson fans, if you read that genre you will definitely like my middle grade books. If not, well I worry they might never see the light of day. Wouldn’t that be depressing?

Anyway I want you to think about the kinds of books you write. Are they the “same” kind of book? Totally different? Now I want you to think if that is a good or bad thing and let me know.

Now I know what you’re thinking… Ang middle grade and young adult books are similar. Well sure, some are, but comparing Heroes & Vallenez to Skeleton Lake is like comparing Artemis Fowl to Twilight. There are huge gaping holes where the audience does not over lap. Yes, I know many of you enjoy both of these kinds of books, but if you are reading my blog, lets be honest, you’re a book person. Book people are freaks.

How to Be a Better Writer: Today

My previous Sunday Specials (which can be found at the bottom of this post) all focused on the writing process. I understand how I work best, and I wanted to help you understand how you work best. Since it was me, the advice was also spooned out with humor and slight satire.

That is why when I was plotting my new Special blog series I wanted to do something serious. Seriously. I want to help you (and me) become better writers. Not tomorrow, not in six weeks, not in fifteen years from now, but WRITE now.

My How to Be a Better Writer series will consist of three Sunday blogs, all focusing on how you can be more gooder! (Snort) If you do it right, you will never stop improving as a writer. Every book I pen, every short story I force myself to type out, makes me better. That doesn’t mean you can’t get better today, because you can. Here is how:

1. Tell yourself you are going to write today—then do it. It can be anything. A blog on writing, your current wip, or even just the jotting down of a dream or what you did last night. Something, anything.

2. Learn a new word that means the same thing as another word you already use too much.

I hate reading manuscripts with the same word appearing over and over. As soon as I catch on it’s like witch nails on the chalkboard of my back.

Let me help, my new word is crux. Yes like from Harry Potter. It means essence, or soul, or the “most important part”.

3.Don’t let distractions distract you—for good. Stuff comes up. Some things in life can absolutely not be avoided. So take care of those things and sit back down and write. Sometimes it is easier to say once you have been distracted that you have already been interrupted, and it’s not worth it. It’s always worth. In the days where we all have kids, and jobs, and twitter, you should know that even if you only have five minutes, that will be five minutes you are wishing you had later.

4. Read something you didn’t write. That is longer than a Twitter of Facebook post. Again, it can be anything. A blog post (hopefully it’s one of mine), a magazine article. If you know me, you know that I am never with out a book to read for very long. Writers are readers, no exceptions.

5. Whatever you do, don’t quit early. I am a firm believer that teaching yourself habits, both good and bad, impact your writing in a major way. If you get stuck, and then stop, you are teaching yourself to quit when things get hard. That might not mean a lot of things to you now, but in the future when you might have deadlines, well what happens when you get stuck then?

If you think about writing as often as I do, you realize things. I think the number one way I can always improve me as a writer is to be more efficient at everything about it.

Need more Angela WRITE Now on writing? Check out all my post from the writing process demystified below.

#1 REM for your writing
#2 Oral Fixation
#3 To Tweet or To Not Tweet (That is the question)
#4 An inspirational post on inspiration

See you tomorrow, I am blogging about writing personalities.

Taking it to the NEXT LEVEL

Advance, retreat, advance, retreat. It seems like all I ever do these days is advance retreat.

Do you believe everything happens for a reason?

It seems like my attempt at self publishing was doomed from the beginning. I thought it was a lesson is perseverance. I lost an editor, I lost a friend who doubled as an editor. My husband who is in the military went TDY. Then I got a vacation, I came back and my resolve had tripled. I was ready for my book to  be out there!

I sat down. I took a breath. I read what I had written—and it was good. Better than I had remembered, better than I hoped.

Then I started talking to a friend, and I had a panic attack.

I never tried to shop around Pigments of My Imagination. I never sent it to an agent, I was so warn down from that I couldn’t make myself do it. I just couldn’t. My splintered shards of ego couldn’t take any more close calls. I have had so many, if you have read my previous posts you know I am a walking statistical impossibility. I have never met anyone with my kind of positive response that does not have an agent.

And that is not a good thing. I am not bragging, I am telling you it nearly made me quit for good. When I send out query letters, I don’t get a high. I mostly feel like I am going to throw up. The high comes from the full and partial requests—and then it’s like an emotional roulette. I am out of control, spinning wildly praying my number will come up. I am on the clouds until I hurdle to the ground. Do that enough times and you have writers whiplash. I was warn down, I was miserable.

I still think I will likely end up on my own. But if I don’t try to do this, I will have to live the rest of my life knowing that I didn’t. Wondering every day if it was the right choice. So I going to take my book, and I am going to spend some time trying to find an agent. Not forever. Just a little while, because I think sometimes we should listen to that voice inside our head. What is a few more weeks in the scheme of things?

The Many First Pages of BARNEBY KNOTTS

I did a guest blog over at Harry Potter for Writers a couple of weeks and and I mentioned I had been a book snob for quite a while.

http://bit.ly/k7gcgK

Sadly, some of that spilled over into my own writing, and I stopped writing books for ‘kids’ by high school because I thought I was above such silly nonsense.

YIKES would you believe it took me more than a dozen years to get over that? And in 2010 my young adult turned middle grade turned young adult book Barneby Knotts was born and I was totally stoked.

Last Year, Barneby Knotts ate my soul. So of course I had to share it with all of you.

This is my first ever first page of Barneby Knotts. It’s different from the rest because I wrote this after deciding I was sick with so many book series ending after the ‘final battle’ I wanted to start a book that began with the final battle. I still plan on it, but that just didn’t work for this story. Now this first page resides in the third book. I can’t even tell you the title yet, it will give too much away.

I Barneby Knotts, not being in sound mind or body hereby declare this my last will and testament. Though it shall never be found, as I am worse than lost and wandering through the middle of the desert. Also included are my notes on everything that has gone wrong up till this point. Just in case. Some of you in next generation of suckers― I mean heroes, might like to know how not to survive the final battle. This is really for you. The first thing that you need to know is I really don’t care that much about you. The second thing is it’s not always best to be the last one standing.

If they make a movie of my life, the waves of heat coming off the sweltering desert floor will make a great segue to this next part.

You might not know this about me, but I don’t really like following orders. It tends to get me in a lot of trouble, but never more than I can handle, never more than I can get me, my friends, and my clients out of. So of course the one time I do actually choose to listen this happens.

The desert at night feels a bit like you’ve crash landed on another planet. All day it feels as though you are battling an eternal fire than threatens to engulf you if you forget to drink water for ten minutes. Then the fire dies the sun sets and things are different. In cities there are things to hold on to that heat, in the desert nothing can and the outside temperature falls faster than your internal temperature does. That alone makes me feel uneasy. Of course the pack of domestic coyotes didn’t help.

This is my second ever first page of Barneby Knotts. It’s the first version of the new timeline and plot. The rest of the versions after this stick to the same main plot points, even if they seem completely different from this page.

This deal took place as they often do some place no one would really be looking. Sitting on a bench outside of an all night diner, somewhere in a suburb of Texas was an ordinary man. An ordinary man, in an ordinary suit, reading an ordinary news paper. If not for the ostentatious limousine, that had already been made to circle the block twice, there would be nothing note worthy about this man at all. Other than, the person he seemed to be waiting for was late.

Out of the corner of his eye the man must have seen him coming. Quickly folding his news paper the man got up. Hastily he folded his newspaper and tucked it securely under his arm. He glanced at his watch, but he did not frown at the time as he normally would.

If it was possible there was a less likely companion for his man than the one approaching him my imagination fails me. From his dark spiky hair and purple high-tops to his obvious school delinquency there was nothing ordinary about this boy at all.

"I thought you would be a little older, just based off your seemingly infinite list of adventures."
"And I thought you would be, I don't know awesome-er by yours but your just an old man in a boring ugly suit."

What might have been offensive to some, went unnoticed. The man, still clutching his paper sat back down and motioned for the boy next to him join him on the bench, but the boy did not sit.

"I suppose you being you is why I selected you isn't it kid?"
"Is that some kind of riddle Mr.Walker?"

"No, nothing like that. I am only saying that your youthful voyeurism is exactly what I know this quest needs to succeed."
"You know sir, if I didn't know better I'd swear you just accused me of being young and stupid."

From his folded newspaper the man took out an unmarked white envelope and placed it in his companion’s outstretched hand. "Not stupid Barneby Knotts. Reckless―but in my opinion, why change what works?"

After that I joined a critique group (that I have now separated myself from) they hated that beginning so under them I wrote this:

It was early, even for a school day. The sun had not yet fought away the early morning fog and would not for hours still. A boy, seemingly out of place, stood under a moss covered tree. Grass came up past his alarmingly purple high tops, except in the patches he had stomped flat in his frustration.

This boy’s name was Barneby Knotts.

It was wet. The air was as moist as the dew that had settled on everything, and even in the dim light green stood out everywhere. The newly paved road, however, blended into the darkness that the early hour refused to shed.

The trees here stood so close, and so thick, that if not for the humming noise from the freeway in the distance, the trees might have been a forest. And Barneby might have been standing in the middle of nowhere.

But this teenager didn't look like he was from the backwoods of anywhere. He had dark, tousled hair and circles under his eyes. He wore a t-shirt from a band you have probably never heard of.

Why wake up early, when you can just never go to bed? That was his motto, and he lived by it twice a week.

“Come on!” The boy huffed at the foliage, as another clump of grass was lost in his impatience.

The man this boy was waiting for was late. Releasing his third sigh in under a minute he fingered the map folded in his pocket. The map he had printed specifically, to find his way to this spot.

If you have read my blog, then you know I actually got a lot of positive response on Barneby Knotts, that was based off the above version, BUT after some agent feedback—the agent I REALLY wanted to be exact I wrote this version, with a younger, more first person Barneby Knotts:

I held my breath willing the window not to squeal. If anyone heard me now, I'd never make it out. I'd be a prisoner here for months, the whole summer trapped in this box. I'd go mad. At least, that was what happened last time mom caught me sneaking out the house.

Slowly, painfully slowly, I lifted the dusty frame up a millimeter at a time. My fingers damp with sweat, black grime sticking to them like fingerprinting ink leaving evidence of my crime. My window always jams halfway up, but it had to be enough. I couldn't risk sneaking out the back door again. My sister was on to me.

When I was sure that was as far as my window was moving, I turned back in facing my bedroom. On my bed lay my empty black Jansport. I shoved my school books deep under my bed, where I hoped my mother wouldn't dare look for anything. If everything went according to plan, I'd be off seeking treasure, and she'd think I'd gone to school early because I put off my math homework again.

Really the plan was almost flawless.

Propped against my desk chair was the sword my father had given me for my last birthday. It had belonged to his grandfather, and now it belonged to me. You rarely need such weaponry in these urban gigs, but it felt wrong to leave it behind.

I was still wearing the same sweat pants and over sized t shirt I always wore to bed, but under that were my favorite pair of jeans, and holiest band tee. I peeled off the top layer, and used it to wipe the black smudges from my window away before tossing them it the corner of my room. Just like I would do any other school morning when I as half awake. If I used the hamper my parents would know something was up.

Deciding that I hated myself for taking the agent feedback and getting that I wrote the version I have now. I was going to share it with you, but since Barneby Knotts doesn’t come out until ::checks newly updated schedule January 3rd I thought I’d keep it for later. But I will say. It starts like this.

“Crunch.
He had exactly five minutes, and then I was leaving.”

Anyway, I shared that to tell you this. I hate revision, and this is the only book in the history of Angela Write Now, or Angela at any other time that required this type of revision. When I write books they are carefully planned out in my head, I hit play on the movie and easily capture what should be there. But until recently, Barneby Knotts wasn’t nearly as awesome on paper as he was in my imagination. I shared this with you because I wanted to share with you some rough evolution of writing. And to prove to Karen that I am capable of thinking crap is good. Even great, when it comes to my own writing sometimes.

I’d love to hear your feedback! What did you love, what did you hate? I should also mention, that I hated myself for following the feedback not because it wasn’t sound advice, but because it was so completely off base from who Barneby Knotts was-- he was supposed to destroy bad guys and virgins, and he ended up a little kid. I am glad he is back to who he was supposed to be, and one day I will do a story with the young Barneby Knotts. Just not today.