Leukemia

I have blogged here on my blog about my son's leukemia

http://differentcornersinmylife.blogspot.com/2011/10/our-journey-with-leukemia.html 

And a guest post about my son's journey with Leukemia here on Brian's blog
http://brha99.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/you-never-know-what-tomorrow-might-bring/

Today I want to bring to your attention another writer whose son is in his own fight against leukemia.
http://the-underground-press.blogspot.com/
And here is another blog where you can read about Joshua
http://maxwellcynn.blogspot.com/2012/02/indies-unite-for-joshua-heroes-all.html?showComment=1328562441237#c4060497163346345842
If you would like to help you can go here...
http://www.indiegogo.com/indiesuniteforjoshua

I love Blogs!

Good morning! And Happy Tuesday!
Today I just want to share a few blogs that I have found and that I follow, since I really need to update my other blog today! Yikes! You can find it here...
http://karensdifferentcorners.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/my-firsts/

This is J A Bennett's new blog http://j-a-bennett.blogspot.com/2012/01/fresh-start.html?spref=tw

Here is some advice on creating a good blog or web page.
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/01/06/is-your-website-hurting-your-writing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheCreativePenn+(The+Creative+Penn)&utm_content=Google+Reader

And here are a few of my faves I follow

http://www.theredheadriter.com/

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/

http://theballadofjoeyflowers.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/the-love-the-hate-regret-we-all-have-it/

http://debrakristi.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/immortal-monday-poseidon-not-the-hollywood-version/

There are so many more wonderful blogs that I follow not mentioned today, but I am thinking I should start sharing them on Tuesdays.
Have a wonderful day today everyone!
Karen

How to write a book?

I have read 10,000 help blogs on "How to write a book." Well maybe only 500, but it feels like a heck of a lot more! And every single one of them tell you something different. Not only do help blogs tell you how to write books, but there's also the ones who tell you how to write queries and synopsis'. And then there are the submission processes of agents and publishers.
First you have people telling you, "No purple prose" If you don't know what that is you can find out about it here;
http://www.debstover.com/purple.html and yes, there is one small line in my book that has it, but in my defense, that part of my book took place in the '70's. And I didn't know what "purple prose" was until about 10 minutes ago!
Okay so now you are done writing and it's time to query.
First they tell you how to write a query and you would think it would be a simple process, but no it's not. It can be one of the hardest things you'll ever do and I think I just submitted the shortest query in history! Very short and to the point. Oh well. It was my first submission and let's hope I get better as I go along.
Second they tell you, "Don't query a series." So what if they are asking for series?

So here's the deal;
I've written my book. I wrote it the way the story played out in my head. I proofread it and did the edits and reread it. It's done! It might be only 55,000 words, but it is a tragic love story with closure and I cried through a major part as I was writing it. Hopefully that's because of the story and not my writing. No, it doesn't have a happily ever after. Not yet anyways, because it is the first book in a series of four books and then you get the happily ever after. Which, by the way, has been written also and is apprx. 93,000 words.

So the moral of this story is...
Write your way, in your own words. Take time to double check spelling. Make sure the story flows and comes together nicely and do your best on queries and the synopsis and if they like it.... Read the help blogs either before you begin writing or after finishing the first draft. And once you've submitted that book to the agents and publishers you want, take a deep breath and don't start stressing on what you think you did or did not do. It's been sent and it's up to the the people you queried now.

Queries!

Aak! Eek! Ugh! Okay now that I've got that out of the way...I want to ask a question...At least I think I wanted to ask a question....Wait, let me think about this. I've got all these questions rolling around in my head.  Stop! Okay had to stop the roulette wheel and pick the one I wanted. Okay here's my question... No wait let me give you a little history first then I'll ask.

I am writing a series of 3 books. I am almost finished with the third. I just need to fill in a couple of gaps, tie it together, and make sure it's flows and keeps you reading. But the thing is I haven't written the first 2 books. They are still in my head. When I first started writing the third book I had no plans on writing the first two, because the third book has enough merit to stand on it's own, is a good read, and has the happily ever after, and yet leaves some questions unanswered, that would make the reader wanting more, which then I could write the first two books. I just feel that if any get published, I want it to be the third.

Okay so here's my question for you....

When sending out my query letter, Do I just query the one book as a stand alone? Or do I need to put in the query, that it could be a series?

Is there a difference in tactics when sending to an agent? Or a publisher?

As to that I mean... Do you tell the publisher that you are querying that it could be a series or not?

Do you tell the agent that it could be a series or not?

Epilogue or Happily Ever After

Do you write an epilogue? Or do you just write the Happily ever After? I've been doing a little research on the differences but would like to know what other writers feel about the two. See the ending of my story will partly be a summary of what happened in the character's lives. It takes place 17 years in the future. And it is told mainly in the second person point of view.
I did find some info here http://www.ehow.com/how_5001509_write-epilogue-novel.html
But by  #4 Avoid the "happily ever after" trap. Happy endings are uplifting, but they should not be used as a way to minimize the conflict that occurred in the novel.


 I am thinking they are telling me not to change my "Happily ever after" into an epilogue.


I will continue to do more research, but I would love your viewpoints on the two.


Wishing you all a great weekend and as always, "Happy Writing"

Am I Backwards?

Good morning! As usual I have questions and tend to do every thing backwards.
 Is that unusual or do you happen to do this too?

I have had a fantasy roaming around in my head for about a year now and just about four months ago I decided to write a book about it. So sitting down with pen and paper I started writing. When I was into my third chapter, I told myself, "Wait a minute, maybe I should do some research on how to write a book" So I did find a blog that I thoroughly enjoyed and had thought I had bookmarked and can't seem to find it now. (But I will and will share it with you at a later date.)

Anyway, I was reading his blog and he had a checklist and helpful advice on what you need. So I was going through his list and saying, "Okay I've done this, and I've done that. Great it looks like I was doing everything pretty much right and was on track." When I came to his comment, "Now you need to have an ending. Your Happily ever after." OMG, I have no idea how this story is supposed to end! And I stressed on it. Mind you I was still only on my third chapter. I walked around for two days trying to figure out how to get my Happily Ever After. Lucky for me I woke up on the third day and there it was in my head. So my ending chapter has been written. Phew, now I don't have to stress on that.

   Currently I am on the 12th chapter! And once again jumping forward. I have been researching publishers, literary agents, synopsis, and how to write query letters!

I have decided I'm not backwards, I just tend to jump forward and get ahead of myself and then have to go backwards to get me back to where I should be! :-)

I did get a notice yesterday for a group on Facebook where the writer wrote his novel from "Ending to Beginning" I have to hand it to him. I don't think I would be able to accomplish that!

We all have our own writing styles to get us from point "A" to point "B" or visa versa and I will talk about those in my next blog.

Happy Writing everyone!

Stumbling Block

Good morning and Happy Monday everyone!

   Today I want to talk about "Stumbling Blocks", Not "Writer's Block", per say, just stumbling ones. Have you ever been so engrossed in a book, and just finished reading a great chapter and are anticipating the next one, when all of a sudden the writer seems to have stumbled through that chapter? Yes the chapter needs to be there to carry on the story and yet it just goes flat....There is a favorite song of mine where the guitar riff is going great and then the guitarist throws in this one note and it gives me the impression that his hand slipped. It's like, "Okay, where did that come from?"

  This past week I have been having a stumbling block on the chapter I am currently working on. And yes, it needs to be there. The scene has played out in my head a dozen different ways and I know what needs to be said, but every time I start typing it up, I feel like I am stumbling through it and I really don't like that feeling...

So my question to you is...How do you get through it and keep your readers engrossed instead of giving them the impression that you fell flat? Love to hear what you have to say. And as always, all opinions are more then welcome!

Agent or Publisher?

Good morning and Happy Friday to everyone!

 My question today is Literary Agent or Publisher?
When you wrote your first book, which did you go through and why?
How did you find them?
Were they referred to you?
And what are the traits you looked for?

  My fear is that I will choose the wrong one and after jumping through all the hoops
I will find myself right back where I started from.

As always would love to hear you views, comments
and any helpful tips that you have learned along your path
to being published!

Have a great day and a beautiful weekend!