Your Writing Soundtrack?

What's with the pic, you ask? I just googled "girl listening to music", and when I found that one I just had to share it. That's the subject of today's post. Music.

This is a new one for me. I've been listening to a lot of music while I'm revising my projects. Music with words, people, WORDS! Not just the Soundscapes Channel (tm) on my cable TV. ;)

When I'm drafting, lyrics usually distract me from the words that I want to fill an empty page with. Right now, none of my projects are in the drafting stage, and while revising my urban fantasy, I found myself listening to music I thought my MCs would like. This novel has four distinct pov characters, and music--instead of being distracting like it is while I'm drafting--actually helped me to bring out their personalities more.

This is a pretty recent phenomenon for me, though I did experiment with non-instrumental music while revising STRINGS, listening to a lot of Gogol Bordello and Nina Simone. A weird combination, I know, but it worked for me.

While writing my urban fantasy, each character had such a distinct personality that I got more out of a soundtrack I love but hadn't listened to in a long time--not since I put it on my phone, of course! I know, I am sooo hi-tech. It's the Shortbus Soundtrack, a movie by John Cameron Mitchell (of Hedwig and the Angry Inch fame. Adults, check Hedwig out if you like rock and roll and issues of identity all wrapped up in one glam package), which has so many great songs by artists I'd mostly never heard of before. It was the perfect compliment to my MC's various tastes in music.

Funny how I never appreciated music for helping me to create personality as well as mood, but it's definitely working.

Do you find this is true with your writing?

My current problem is figuring out what kind of music Evie likes. I'm not exactly sure. I've only just realized how important it is for me to know. But what kind of music does a 17 year old girl these days listen to? Especially one who's a little brainy and thinks she's boring, but with a stubborn streak. I don't know where to start. Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

Work in Progress... Thursday?

I know, I know, I said I was going to spend February reading.

I did read Hush, Hush, and Evermore (and the Hunger Games and half of Catching Fire again), and I started a number of other books. I just haven't finished them yet. I even read a good chunk of Percy Jackson 4 yesterday on the streetcar. It's pretty good, just like the others, and the stakes are higher this time around.

The thing is, I just haven't been compelled to devour a book in a while. (Apparently, Suzanne Collins has ruined me for all other books. ;D )

Not to mention that I keep having these ideas, hearing these voices, thinking of plot revisions. First it was for my urban fantasy, which I just finished a third draft of.

Now it's EVANGELINE. Based on some recent feedback I was mulling over, last night I finally came up with a way to bring some of the elements into play earlier. It's going to be LEGEND... wait for it... DARY! LOL.

Most importantly, my passion for a story I was about to give up on has been rekindled. Which is a good thing, right? Eh, I don't really know anymore!


After I finished grad school, during which period I barely read for pleasure at all unless a new Harry Potter just came out, I promised myself all I'd do was read books. I went through a period where I rabidly caught up with series I loved or books I'd heard great things about. Then one day I had an idea. And I started writing. That idea didn't wind up going anywhere--not yet, anyway--but it got me back on the path. That's how I know I'm a writer. Though books were my first love, writing is my true love.

Sure, keeping yourself well-read is important, but if the muse strikes, is it more important to listen to her? I mean, this is why I started writing in the first place--yeah, I've read good books, but I've also read a lot that frustrated me or let me down in the end. I want my books to be someone's favorites someday. The kind of books that inspired others to become writers. Not that I want a fandom, or anything (although reading fan-fic would be kind of awesome). I just want to bring great stories to life and have others enjoy them. So I'm juggling three works in progress right now, hoping that one of them will be the first I share with the world.

Which is why my tbr pile comprises an entire shelf in a huge bookcase. Those stories aren't my "babies". I'll neglect them as long as I need to in order to care for my own. And when my babies start giving me headaches again, or I'm at a point where I can't work on any of them yet, my tbr pile won't have gone anywhere.

I made a promise to myself to read more books this year, but getting my novels ready to query has always been my first priority. And frankly, I find working on three works in progress to be less draining than investing hours in a book I wind up wanting to throw across the room.

What say you, world?

Tempting Fate Part II: Son of a Norn!

Do you knock on wood? Avoid walking under ladders? Do you have little rituals for luck?

I guess I'm a pretty superstitious person, because I do. And sometimes I think I even jinx myself. Like when I was talking about tempting fate the other day.

As if things weren't bad enough with this cold I wished upon myself (that just will NOT go away, ugh), I dropped a jar of peanut butter--plastic, 2.5 pounds, net weight--on my big toe. It immediately turned purple and it's literally howling in pain. What? You can't hear that? It's deafening, I tell you!

Obviously, I brought this insufferable toe pain upon myself by bemoaning my sickness on the interwebs, thereby poking a pointed stick, possibly covered in marshmallow goo, at Fate. How else would that jar of peanut butter have slipped right out of my hands and onto my toe? Is there a saint to pray for to keep from losing my toenail? Should I light some candles?

Are you superstitious? Do you believe in jinxes and self-fulfilling prophecies? I'd love to hear about it. (Lordhavemercy, I'm so out of it this morning I just spelled prophecies with an F. *insert eye-roll here*)

Anyone else battling Nyquil addiction, er, I mean, this staggering headcold, too? ;)

New Magic Under Glass Cover

Still feeling under the weather, but I wanted to share this:


Magic Under Glass has a new cover. I'm just about to order it online!

Read more about the cover change here, here, and here.

Read Any Good Books Lately?

Here's the problem.

I've got all these great books at home waiting to be read, but I don't know which one to read first. So I offer to you my very first blog poll. (ta da! It's in my sidebar.)

I'm still fighting off stuffiness from this cold, so I haven't been doing much reading, and I know I should finish these books, but for some reason I've been straying back toward my urban fantasy. I think what's scaring me is that there are so many of them all of a sudden, when I hadn't been reading for a while. Now it's like they're ganging up on me, crowding around begging to be read first. So I figure if I tell them to get in line and wait their turn, they'll simmer down a little. But I need an outside opinion.

Tell me which book you think I should read first:

Soulless, Gail Carriger

Fire, Kristin Cashore

The Maze Runner, James Dashner

4th and 5th Percy Jackson Books, Rick Riorden

Just read Catching Fire again

Or tell me in the comments what you've been enjoying lately.

My poor, neglected books thank you in advance. ;)

Tempting Fate

So I made it all the way through Mardi Gras without getting sick, only to succumb to a head cold yesterday. I must have tempted fate, bragging about how how I got my government mind control shot--er, I mean flu shot--which kept me healthy all winter long.

A few weeks ago (maybe it was just days, I don't recall when exactly. The sickness, she confuses me) Roni over at Fiction Groupie wrote a post about coincidences. Specifically, contrived coincidences.

Sure, coincidences happen in real life--that's why we say life is stranger than fiction. But just because something could possibly happen if all the stars aligned, it doesn't mean your reader is going to buy it.

I agree with her wholeheartedly about contrived coincidences that help your characters out. That just smacks of authorial intrusion and tip-toes into deus ex machina territory.

But what about "coincidences" that serve to keep your characters from their goals? Will you tolerate a coincidence with nasty results better than one that helps the protagonist?

Can people--and thus, characters--really "jinx" themselves by thinking they've almost reached their goal?

More importantly, can this device be overused just like the good coincidences to the point that they also feel contrived, too much like authorial intrusion?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Forewarned, I'm full up to my eyebrows with Sudafed and Emergen-c, so it might take me a while to respond. ;)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Elana J's Pay it Forward Query Critique Contest!

Just in case you haven't heard, YA author Elana Johnson is having an amazing contest on her blog. Click here to enter or read on for more details:

Here's what you can win: A query letter critique.

By whom?

By one of these top five literary agents!

1. Kate Testerman-Shafer of KT Literary (critique will be posted on her blog, Ask Daphne)
2. Michelle Andelman of Lynn C. Franklin Associates (my fabulous agent!)
3. Mary Kole of Andrea Brown Literary Agency
4. Michelle Wolfson of Wolfson Literary Agency
5. Joanna Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation


Worth entering? You decide. But if you win, one of those agents will be helping you out with your query letter. And who better to do that than the people who read hundreds of them?

I mean, seriously.

In addition to that, FIVE more winners will win a free copy of my eBook, From the Query to the Call, which outlines in great detail how to write a query letter (and other things). All winners--as with all buyers--get a free query critique by me with this eBook.

As if that weren't enough, FIVE more winners will win a package of my all-time favorite writing tools: the super-sticky, super-size Post-it note. I love those things. They're 4x6-inches, so you can really take notes in the middle of the night and stick your scribbles to your laptop.

I'd enter just for a chance to win Elana's e-book! Be sure to check out how to enter on Elana's blog. She also links to other contests bloggers are having--Shannon O'Donnell and Shelli Johannes-Wells-- so there are plenty of chances for you to win! Good luck!