Sheralyn Pratt's Blog, page 7

Is It Safe to Come Out?

A few recent conversations have rather unsubtly pointed out that I haven’t updated this blog in ages. To be honest, I didn’t imagine anyone would mind having one less blog post to read, but the real reason I haven’t posted anything in quite some time comes down to one word:
Politics.
You know, one of those three subjects we’re not supposed to talk about in mixed company?
For the record, when it comes to politics I believe in letting everyone vote in accordance with their experience and values without mocking them for it or labeling them as an idiot if that vote is different from mine. As a rule, I am pretty difficult to offend politically which is one of the reasons I offend people so regularly, I think. Hearing other people’s thoughts doesn’t get me riled up, and I forget that such is not the case with everyone else. Some people are immediately offended the moment they hear someone state a position they feel opposes their own. And since we now live in a social climate where people confuse “I’m offended!” with “I’m right!” I’d rather just stop the drama before it starts.
But now the political fever has played out. Now is a time for petitions for secessions, addressing the fiscal cliff, and ensuring through force that all oil-producing countries accept the US dollar as their currency of choice. It’s time to get back to the grind, reach across the aisle, and throw stones at and declare unpatriotic any company that publicly discusses its concerns of remaining solvent and profitable after paying the additional taxes required by Obamacare.
Yes, the fun has just begun. And as we push forward, I will still have my nose in politics—reading both articles and the comment section to see what topics are being touched on and how they’re being received. It fascinates me. I like to see, for example, if there are any actual business owners calling other business owners unpatriotic over the steps they need to take to remain profitable with the healthcare tax hikes—or if the comments come exclusively from people who are professional employees and have never hired an employee themselves. I like to see the discussions that arise when a group stands up for what it believes to be their rights. I don’t care if it’s the gay community seeking marriage equality, a state fighting for the right not to have tax-funded abortions, whether the ruling on Super Pacs should be allowed to stand, or if high school footballs teams should be allowed to have Bible verses on their banners.
I like the discussion. It doesn’t razzle me. It doesn’t offend me, although I can see clearly that plenty of people are offended, and if I cross their path even as a devil’s advocate, I’m in for it.
Right now the trending conversation is the number of petitions filed at petitions.whitehouse.gov to secede from the Union, and my online discussions have shown the popular consensus that these petitions are petulant and un-American.
For my part, I kind of disagree with this assessment. First off, few things are more American than seceding and threatening to secede from a larger body one feels has become oppressive. It’s how this country was founded, and I would be curious as to how many times a state has legitimately threatened to secede since. I’m guessing it’s a big number. (I’ll need to dig up a historian friend and discuss that, I think.)
As for the accusation that the petitions are petulant? I’d rather give the people the benefit of the doubt and say that the petitions are a cry for serious discussion about the powers of the federal government… about whether or not a popular vote cast in New York should impact what happens in Texas where the exact same issue was voted down.
By accepting federal funds, do states lose their right to autonomy?Do Colorado and Washington have the right to legalize marijuana?Do federal judges have the right to overturn popular state vote?In the near future, will doctors have the right to refuse to perform an abortion without negative action being taken against them?Can private businesses be sued for denying services to a paying customer?Should the standards of a “non-profit” organization be altered so that organizations like the NFL can no longer avoid paying “their fair share” (in the NFL’s case, more than $40 million each year)?

These questions, and more, interest me. They don’t offend me, nor does the discussion of them, which is why I hope that the petitions to secede create some intelligent discussion between state’s rights and the rights of the federal government.
And for the record, my stance is that the government should respond to the voice and needs of the people, not dictate what their voice should be. And if that means conflicting laws in different states, so be it. In my brain there’s no problem with allowing a community the legal right to live its own standards as long the laws do not protect predatory behavior. It’s not right for a politician, who has never worked on a farm a day in his life, to dictate legislation on what farmers should do and what chores they can give their children (status: withdrawn), just as it’s not the place of farmers in Oklahoma to create laws concerning the rights of paparazzi.
At least so says I. But remember, I don’t care if you disagree. I only care why you disagree.
So that’s my spiel on politics. I’ll see if I can move my brain on to more fun stuff now.
Until then, I’m off to do some editing on UnPleasant Grove.
Can’t wait to get it into your paws!

Authorpalooza B&N 9/22- See you there!

I'm so excited for the Orem Barnes & Noble coming up this next Saturday, September 22nd starting at 4:00 pm. It's going to be a blast, and there will be a ton of amazing authors there, so come say hi!!!

For more information, check the Barnes & Noble website:

http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/3714014

Laughing

Today I'm just in the mood to laugh, which meant I spent some time at awkwardfamilyphotos.com. Love it. I have a few new favorites, and one of the photos (not shown) reminded me of one of my favorite commercials, which is apparently banned.

So here they--in case they get a smile out of you, too :)

Venus in Transit

I often say I am vicariously smart. This tidbit below falls in the category of things I know because people around me are smarter than I am. I owe this one to my uncle. Hope you enjoy :) 






Tomorrow afternoon (Tue 5 June) Venus goes across ("transits") the disk of the sun for six hours from 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. (after sunset) Utah time (MDT), being maximum (closest to center of sun) at 7:30 p.m.  It won't happen again for over a century, so you ought to take a look.  Sunglasses, pinhole camera, or the like might be a good idea. (It's not as dangerous to the eye as everyone says, but it's tough to see directly!) It will just be a little black spot going across the sun, but it's really rare. It is visible all across the continental U.S., and actually best for those of you in Hawaii, being more at mid-day.

Characters in Crisis

When writing action, it’s important that the author do one very important thing: act it out. And if you can’t do that, find someone who is an expert in what you’re trying to portray to verify that what you are scripting is plausible.
To show both good and bad examples of why it’s important to do this, I’ll use scenes from the same TV series: Castle.
A bit of background: Detective Beckett is a New York City cop who is followed around by New York Times bestselling author, Richard Castle. Shenanigans ensue. There are frequent brushes with death—including this one:
Click and watch the first few minutes (sorry, it won’t let me embed): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlMH81aMBvg
Okay, have you watched it? Were you tense? Did you think they were going to die? Did you empathize with their situation, or did you find it a little frustrating?
Did you think they were going to die?I’m going to assume that you were not nervous and fearful for their lives, because this is the bad example of making things go wrong for your hero. I’m going to guess that you really weren’t all that tense, and weren’t too worried about things ending up just fine. And no, not just because these are the two leads of a show and they’re not going to kill them off, but because too much went wrong in the scene.
Let’s start at the beginning of the scene where Castle and Beckett are pushed into the Hudson (yuck) by an SUV. We immediately see that this harbor was built adjacent to an endless abyss. The car is sinking, sinking, sinking… and, yep, still sinking.
Cut to our heroes. They need to get out or die. Easy right? Let’s go through their lifesaving process:
They try to open the doors, BUT the doors won’t open. Beckett informs us/Castle that there must have been damage to the frame of the car when the SUV rear-ended them (because that’s what people do when they’re looking death in the eye: they rationalize their obstacles). Next, the windows won’t roll down, so Beckett deduces they should shoot out the window. BUT somehow her gun fell out of its snug little secure holster. So they start looking for it.Beckett tries to find her gun BUT she can’t because her seat belt is permanently locked and isn’t budging.So she tries to move/recline the seat so she can slip out, BUT the seat has suddenly become locked into its upright position.Does she have a knife? Yes, she has a knife, BUT it’s in the trunk.

With this guy they won't need
the flashlight to find the gun.Cut to exterior shot of the car still falling, falling, falling to the sea floor—presumably to where it’s so dark that some fish have headlights.
What would you be doing at this point? Trying to wiggle out of your seat, perhaps? Contorting yourself into some awkward positions to see if you can slip out of your seat. In this moment, your actions decide whether or not you will die at sea. Would you be sitting still and only trying options that requiring bending from your elbows down? (I don’t know about you, but this part of the scene bugged me enough that I went out to my car to see if I could get out of my seat with the seat belt on and the seat locked in a upright position. I can. And my life isn’t even at stake.)
The decision is made that Castle needs to use the handy flashlight he finds to retrieve the gun and shoot off the belt. (I won’t even  go into the complications there.)
We don’t need to go any farther to see why this is my example of too many implausible things go wrong. Even more annoying, too many solutions are ignored. (Seriously, take ten seconds and think of all the things you would do in their position that weren’t done. It’s a long list.)
But back to the point: when you create this many obstacles for your hero, your reader starts to smell a rat. An otherwise perilous situation starts to become a little ridiculous and their mind (which really doesn’t want to imagine death as a rule), and the mind will start pointing out all the absurdity of the situation to the viewer/reader rather than choose fear.
“What?” it may whisper to the reader/viewer. “Is the radio going to short circuit and start shocking them now? Or is a rogue, garbage-eating shark going to start circling them and Castle will have to shoot that in the murky water too?”
The point is, if you’re going to make a series of things go wrong that should never go wrong (and do so with highly maintained, professional equipment), then there had better be sabotage involved, not just dumb luck. After all, most of us have been in accidents . This incident wasn’t even all that traumatic, really. Their car was pushed into the Hudson, causing next to no visible structural damage, yet it caused all of the following to fail:
The seat belt lockThe forward/backward seat adjusterThe reclining handle on the seatThe snap on Beckett’s holsterBeckett’s common sense to try common, lifesaving options

To quote SNL, I’ll say, “Really???”
So when you’re making things go wrong in your own work, take a look to see if you’re making too much go wrong, and therefore, losing your audience.
Now let’s look at a good example of things going very, very wrong. Again, this comes from Castle.
Detective Beckett’s backstory is that she became a cop after her mom’s murder went unsolved. In the season finale of Season 4, Beckett has the opportunity to face off with an inside guy who not only works for her mother’s killer, but who also happened to shoot and nearly kill Beckett in the Season 3 finale. Season 3 Cliffhanger: Kate takes a bullet, and she's not happy about it. And, boy oh boy, Beckett is ready for a fight! She’s waited 13 years for this showdown, and she thinks she has what it takes to face off against a government trained, professional assassin and come out Queen of the Hill.
And it goes a little something like this (again, sorry you have to link out):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq15-gns1b8
This scene is a wake-up call on par with Loki facing off against The Hulk in The Avengers.
Total smackdown.
Like a true assassin who is as good at killing as he is at mind games, Beckett’s would-be killer let’s her get a few hits in while staring blandly and unaffected into her eyes. This is brilliant, because it shows both the audience and Beckett how completely outmatched she is. Throughout the fight, he paces like a caged cat whenever he has her down, clearly thinking when he could easily be giving her more of a beat down. He could kill her. We know it. She knows it. And he's absolutely mad that he's going to let her live. We sense that without a word. 
In the short span of this confrontation, the assassin breaks Beckett’s body, will, and a bit of her spirit. And at the end, when he leaves her dangling over the side of the building? I believe him.
So many shows try to portray this type of death-by-negligence moment and fail, but here it works. Why? Because this assassin doesn’t have the green light to kill Kate Beckett yet. There is blackmail material that needs to be destroyed before he takes that step. People who are familiar with the show know this.
But if Kate falls? Off a building high enough to leave interpretation it was a suicide? And the assassin can honestly say that he didn’t push her?
Well, then… whoops.
The assassin can report that Kate fell down and went boom after getting a little overenthusiastic in her attack on him.
Every element in this scene is researched and believable. And maybe, just maybe, part of me starts crushing on the assassin for giving a much-needed wakeup call to a protagonist who has started to dangerously overestimate herself.
Well done. Very believable. Just like in the last scene, we knew that Kate Beckett wouldn’t die, but it was a MUCH more tense ride. Because what went wrong for our hero made sense. She really could have—and maybe should have died. If she had, we all would have nodded and agreed that, while tragic, we saw it coming.
With the first example, however, our reaction to death would be much different. People would be rolling their eyes and yelling things like, “Are you serious?!” at the TV screen.
It’s the difference between actually putting yourself in your character’s shoes, or just throwing them into an impossible situation until your only option is to: Cut away (like Castle did in the first clip)Have a third party intervene (like Ryan does with the little SWAT team in the second clip)Or turn your character into a freakishly capable super ninja long enough to save their own lives (like most action movies do)
My advice, though? Keep it real. Act the action out to see if what your writing is even plausible. If it’s not, try something new until you have something that really works.
Your writing will be better for it.

Conversation With a Muse

Today's ongoing conversation with Rhea (verbatim):

Rhea: I don't think you're ready for this jelly...
Me: What? That's news to me, because I've never met a jelly I didn't like. Bring it.
Rhea: I don't think you're ready for this jelly...
Me: Did you not hear me? I said I'm ready for the the jelly. I'm totally jelly ready. Promise!
Rhea: I don't think you're ready for this...
Me: Really? Well, I thought I was, but now you have me second guessing...
Rhea: This story's too bootylicious for ya', babe.
Me: Really? For me, or for Deseret Book? Or for the part of me that entertains the idea that Deseret Book might actually like Book 5 and want to carry it. Which is it?
Rhea: *silence*

*Sits down in front of computer and opens Word document*

Me: Well, I'm here and I'm ready, so why don't we start small. There's gotta be some place to start.
Rhea: *silence*
Me: Seriously? Nothing?!
Rhea: You'll just end up rewriting it. You're in left field, babe.
Me: Well, then, loan me a compass. Show me where you want me, and I'll go. Promise.
Rhea: *silence*
Me: Rhea?
Rhea: I don't think you're ready for this jelly...

*Deep, calming breath*

All I can say is that Rhea is lucky that she's invisible and has the mystique of a muse. Because the fact remains that I have a draft of Book 5, and Rhea is very adamant that it needs some serious revamping--which is something she's never done to me before.

The good news of all this is that Rhea is definitely on the cusp of letting us all a little farther into her personal rabbit hole. The bad news is that we all have to wait for me to catch on to what she's trying to show me that I am so obviously missing.

If the Spidey sense on the back of my neck is worth anything (which is debatable at this point), then it will all be worth the wait. But send me happy thoughts, okay? Happy thoughts that I can pick up what Rhea is putting down and write it all at record speed and share it with you all :)

In the meantime, here's the theme song she's channeling.

The Winds of Change... I Like Them :)

There’s going to be a little changing here on this blog.
Now some of you might be thinking, “Wait, I thought this was just a blog of randomness followed by further randomness, rarely relating one thing to another.”
And yes, you would be right. To date that was what you could expect here.
But today, that will change. Why? Because I actually have direction now. *pauses to allow gasps to subside*
So here’s the new deal:
I am participating in a new website that will be launching in the next month or so, and this site will be pointing people/writers with specific questions to specific blogs.
This fact quite naturally leads to the question, “Well, what will you be blogging about then?”
I’ll be blogging about why I know best, of course: kicking butt. Teaching martial arts for 12 years does give me a bit of a background--and of the skill sets I bring to the writing table, it is one of the more obscure. Plus, I would LOVE to teach classes on this or receive questions about action sequences.
So FUN!
And since I’m highly “fun” motivated, here we are.
So from this moment on this blog has to do with the various forms of butt-kickery and how to portray it in writing. Questions are welcome. I will either answer submitted questions myself, or link to videos that answer the question the same way I would.
This is going to be fun. Just you wait.
So let the fun begin J

LDS StoryMakers

Each year, there is a great writer's convention held in Utah. The first year I went I didn't have the highest of expectations. I thought it was just going to be some local writers getting together. I don't know what I expected, but I can tell you that I left the convention impressed.

Shouldn't be shocking, right? Mormons know how to get things done, after all. So why wouldn't LDS StoryMakers be an excellent writing conference?

Well, it should have been, and it was.

Last year I was invited to be a presenter in addition to working with authors at the Boot Camp, which was great. Especially the Boot Camp. It's SO great to work with emerging authors and see all the stories that are in other people's heads.And also, as coaches, we get to learn a thing or two. After all, just because you're published it doesn't mean you're all knowing. I'm not the best writer in the world. I'm just a storyteller who gets the job done with the skill I have at the moment.

It's all any of us can do. Be our best in the moment.

And I can tell you in all honesty that a few of the writers in my boot camp last year were much better writers than I was. I told them the same thing to their faces. (One of which seemed flattered while the other stared me in the eye as if to say, "I know. So why are you published and I'm not?" Always fun moments to have. :))

This Thursday, I get to participate in the LDS StoryMakers Boot Camp again. The bonus, this year writers will have the option to choose me--or any other mentor they want! Last year they were assigned. This year it's first come, first served.

So, if you want me, come and get me... or not. That's the cool part of the Boot Camp this year. The choice is YOURS (if you get there early enough... if you get there late, you might be shown to my table by default. We'll have fun, though).

Regardless of the mentor you choose, however, I'd love to meet you and get to say hi face to face! So come find me :)

And to those of you who are going all of the days, I'll only be there on Thursday, but I hope you have a great conference!

For My Next Trick: I'll Turn Crap Into A Blooming Flower

People think differently. It’s true. I know that some people think that some ways of thinking are righter than other, just like some people are thinking at this very moment, It’s not “righter,” it’s “more correct.” Duh, Sheralyn. I thought you wrote for a living.
Yes, I do write for a living. I write for businesses at my day job and for fiction readers at night. And usually—and yes, I’m saying usually, not always—I don’t have much of an ego about it. There are days, or rather instances, however, when I kind of do.
^^ Liar.It’s interesting to do a character study on yourself—to be sitting in a room where everyone else is calmly going about business as usual while you are furious. And in that moment you think, Why am I the only one suppressing violent impulses at the moment? Why am I the only one who is freakishly, steamingly mad when anger is very atypical for me?
In this situation, on this day, I know the answer to that question. I know why I’m mad. But in this case, knowing is not half battle.
G.I. Joe totally lied, which is disappointing, really. I expected more from a Saturday morning cartoon.
I. Am. Mad.
The good news: I’m a believer that good can come from anything. God turns crap into flowers all day long. Therefore, the logic follows that if we wish to become more godlike, we need to learn to turn the crap of this earth into blooming, sniffable eye candy.
It toils not. Neither does it spin... or freak out.Which brings me back to my original point: people think differently. Consequently, this means we do things differently. And because we frequently don’t know the thoughts behind someone’s action, sometimes their methods of other people don’t make sense to us. We look at others and wonder how they got where they got when they are so obviously incompetent. How they get through a day, a project, a job, we have no idea. Only that they do. Somehow, and some baffling way.
But if only you could step in and get them to do it “right,” it would be so much better!
Right?
Now I’m not saying there aren’t incompetent and unqualified people in the world. I’m not saying there aren’t managers who delegate themselves into inactivity. I’m not saying that some people don’t need mentoring or a guiding hand. What I’m saying is that there are some people who don’t see any value in doing something any way but their own. Other ways are not “different,” they are “worse” or maybe even flat-out "bad." Different ways of saying things are not different, but wrong. A different approach is unacceptable to them even if they have nothing to do with executing the approach.
They are right. And by force of their will, you will be “right.”
We all do this to a degree. I’m guilty, for sure. And I can be super pushy about it, too. In recent years I’ve improved upon my compulsion to help people be "right" a little by offering a mandatory disclaimer any time I offer correction that states I am simply speaking from my own experience and may be totally wrong. People are welcome to ignore me, no matter how convincing I may be in explaining why my way works in a superior manner to theirs.
Conversely, I've also learned to appreciate the insight offered when someone else tells me how to be “right.” I’m a writer, after all, so understanding the psychology behind different ways of doing things is very much to my benefit.
It’s when advice turns to force and agency is taken away that I freak out a little.
I would imaging any person in a creative field experiences this. For example, a writer feels this way when an editor makes a change in a manuscript without consulting the author because they think they’re improving the text and know the author well enough to know that the author will fight the change. The author thinks what they've written is perfect as is, but the editor notices a hiccup in flow. So, hush-hush, they just sneak a fix in, believing no one (including the insufferable, immovable author) will ever notice. 
In truth, the author may not notice the change unless a reader asks them to explain it. It’s only then that they read the sentence for the first time and say out loud, “I never wrote that!” Because they didn’t. 
Their editor did. And when asked about it, the editor lets out a long-suffering sigh as they explain how a colloquialism that wasn’t popular until the 1920s found its way into a regency romance while the author balks. The author did their research, by darn, and that saying didn't exist in the same century as her characters. How dare that change be made without consulting her?
No one will notice, the editor might say. What you had before wasn't working. This is better.
And, really, at this point it doesn't matter who's right or if either party is right. What's done is done. The book has been printed and it's not changing. For my editors: Nothing but love.
To be super clear: this did not happen to me. An editor is NOT the reason for my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I LOVE EDITORS. Desperately! I need them—as anyone who’s edited me can attest to. 
The kind of Pooh you don't mind on your shoe.I’m simply using this hypothetical,power-abusing, self-righteous editor in this example as the metaphor for what I’m dealing with that has made me Little Miss Pooh-On-Her-Shoe today. (So if there any any editors with ruffled feathers right now, sorry. I love you, and 9.9 out of 10 times, you are absolutely right.)
So after thinking about my little pile crap I metaphorically stepped in today and analyzing it for its flowering potential, I offer this little tidbit of maybe-wisdom:
There are many paths to the same location. The path we take frequently depends on our goals.
One person may be seeking the quickest route from point A to B, while another person prefers to go a little out of the way if they can spend more time on the freeway. One person may choose a different route because they need to stop at the store to get some medicine for a splitting headache, or because they want to take the opportunity to drive past their late-grandma’s house. Still another person may need to drop off a child at a babysitter, while another person going to pick up a date.
If all these people start at the same origin point and set off without conferring with each other, some of the drivers may certainly be baffled at the turns other people make. The one choosing the quickest route may see the other driver turn on the freeway and think, “That’s going to add 3.2 miles to your travel time—6.4 miles if you take the same path on the way home.” At the same time, the person getting on the freeway may be looking at the one taking the most direct route and thinking, “You’re going to have to go through eight more stop lights on the way there, and none of them are timed. Have fun sitting at the red lights.” They both may watch the guy going to pick up his date and think, “You’re going the wrong way, dude. Are you totally daft?” or see another driver pull into a store parking lot and think, “Seriously? You’re going to the store now? You couldn’t do that before?” The point is that everyone is doing what’s best for them in that moment. They’re all going to end up where they planned, as planned. And they will all accomplish what they need to on their way, if allowed.
But if those who think they are most right forbid the one driver from stopping from the store, because they should have done it before.
They have just forced that person to endure the night with a headache.
If they tell the person who is taking their child to the babysitter’s that they’re going the wrong way and have to turn around, they’ve also tied that person’s hands from doing something (dropping off their child) that would help them be more present in the evening’s events.
And if one of those people who thinks they are the most right decides that it’s time to be frank with the person who likes to drive past grandma’s that, “Your grandma’s dead. It’s time to accept that and stop wasting time and gas driving past a memory.”
That will also change the mood and disposition of the group when they all arrived at their destination.In short, when going from point A to point B, we all have the ways that work best for us for reasons all our own. Maybe those reasons are based on logic, maybe, sentiment, maybe a random memory, a heard-of crime, or any number of other reasons.
Point is: people have their reasons for doing what they’re doing based on their previous experience. Their pathway may be different from yours, but if the other person has repeatedly and competently shown that they can make it to the finish line with time to spare and in good spirits, let them do it in the way that works best for them. Or at least do some probing to discover their rationale before forcing change just because you can.
I’m pretty sure if we all did this, the world would be a more harmonious place.

Confessing a Writer Crush

You may notice that I don't review books on my blog. This is for a number of reasons. I could line-list those reasons, but what it comes down to is that somewhere around two years ago something snapped/shifted/changed inside of me.

I don't know exactly what took place or when it happened, all I know is that all of a sudden I stopped losing myself in books. I became a technical reader, studying what was done right, what was lazy, and how and where authors placed the hooks that got me to keep reading. I became a strategic reader, always asking, "Why is this working?" Why isn't this working?" "Why do I care?" "How are they maintaining the momentum?" "Why don't I want her to end up with so-and-so when other fans of the series do?" "How does she balance so many character story lines and make me care about each?"

And so forth.

While I read these books, I love them, but not in a way I used to love books. I'm not lost in the story. The things I enjoy have changed. I get giddy over well-executed technique and pacing. I clap when I don't see a scene coming, or a character does something memorable. I sigh over funny metaphors (while wishing I'd thought of them first), and I enjoy good, sustained tension more than any HOE (happily ever after).

The things I like about books aren't anything anyone would want to read about in a review. So I don't review.

All that said, there are still exceptions to this rule--rare moments when an author comes along and gets me to enjoy their book on a purely fan level. I forget to think. I don't even try to take notes, because what they're pulling off is so purely their own that to try to emulate it would be to embarrass myself.

All I can do is clap... and develop a writer crush.

I have a few authors I crush on, but today I'll only mention one: Kiersten White, author of Paranormalcy, Supernaturally, and Endlessly.

If you haven't bee introduced to Kiersten White already, I'm proud to make the intro. Check her out! Especially if you liked the Buffy series. And if you didn't like Buffy... well, you'll have to explain that to me some day.

Until then, I'd like you to meet Kiersten White. Paranormalcy is her first book, and I totally encourage you tot pick it up!