Caroline Peckham's Blog, page 8

Five Symptoms of Writer’s Syndrome

Think you’ve come down with a bad case of Writer’s Syndrome? Check out these five signs that’ll help you diagnose yourself….

1) Do you fantasize about writing? 

About what your characters could get up, about their pasts and futures, love interests and enemies? Do you gaze off into the distance with an evil smile on your face as your antagonist does something deliciously cruel in your mind? Do you lose yourself so completely that you literally cannot remember what you were just doing? And, most of all, do you answer people’s questions with “hmmm?” Or “huh?” As you’re dragged out of your reverie? 

   

2) Are you emotionally attached to the imaginary people in your mind?

Do you laugh, cry, feel angry, embarressed or sad when something happens to your characters? Have you decided on a character’s death only to reach that scene and almost/do back out of killing them because you just can’t bear killing off the fake person who you’ve grown to actually love? (And post-death have you sobbed into a pillow the  eaten a barrel of chocolate to help yourself cope?) Are you genuinely excited about what’s going to happen in the story you conjured from nothing? And can you honestly say you’ve never wanted to actually be friends with some of your characters? (Like the fictional people in your head you created – those people!) 

  

3) Do hours seem to slip away as if time has somehow sped up?

Do you settle yourself in to writing early in the morning then you look up and it’s lunchtime? Do you forget about mealtimes and are only reminded to eat because of your tummy rumbling so loudly it drags you back to reality? Does it get to midnight and you think “five more minutes” then suddenly it’s 4am and you have to be up in a couple of hours to do actual real life things?  Do you feel like there isn’t enough time in the world to get your writing done?

  

4) Do you ever worry that even if you lived for two hundred years you’d never be ‘done’? 

Do you feel that no matter how much you wrote, no matter how many hundreds, thousands or millions of words you got down you’d never reach a maximum? Is writing something you’re compelled to do like it has become as important to you as eating or sleeping?

  

5) Do you sometimes have to force yourself to be social to make sure you don’t become a hermit that lives in the hills?

When in writing mode do you have to make a conscious effort to put the story away and just be in the real world for a while? Do you plan social events in advance so you can keep that time aside for being away from your writing? But do you also, when being out, think about writing when you get back home later and find yourself being inspired for events that could happen in your book while you’re out?

  

If you answered yes to any of these questions (especially if it was more than one…) I’m afraid you just got diagnosed with Writer’s Sydrome!

Congratu-miserations?

Writing a blurb…..seriously sucks…

So I have spent many many hours trying to come up with the best blurb possible for my upcoming YA fantasy novel Creeping Shadow! And what have I learnt?

Writing a blurb suckssss!!

I can write thousands of words to make a novel but apparently summing it up in a few hundred is just anout the most impossible thing ever. But after a lot of moaning, sighing, deleteting words and swearing at my cat I have come up with a blurb! And now I need some feedback!

So here it is the blurb to Creeping Shadow (Book One in The Rise of Isaac Series) that will be available to by December 2015 (woo!)…………….

A man waits in Vale, a world void of humanity.

A mother vanishes, her disappearance concealed by the police.

A girl falls from her bed, black veins encircling her heart.

And a boy linked to them all must fight to save his family.

Earth is just one of seven worlds. Gateways divide the realms and those who pass through must earn a key for each one, participating in challenges that will separate the fearful from the brave, the weak from the strong, and the witless from the cunning.

Meet sixteen year old Oliver Knight. He knows nothing of the other worlds or his family’s dark past. But when his adopted sister succumbs to a deadly curse the truth is revealed and he is plunged into an unknown land in a desperate plight to save her. Though Oliver soon discovers that not everyone is on his side and he must choose who to trust, who to believe and, ultimately, who to run from.

The journey begins with a devastating truth, whispers of a rising cult, a race against time, and an enemy that lurks in the shadows…

An offer of ARCs!

Caroline:

If you’re interested in getting an ARC of an upcoming Dystopia YA please check out my sister’s blog!! And don’t forget to follow her she’s an amazing writer! (I have read all her books and I promise it’s fantastic so don’t miss this chance to get a free copy of the first book in The Cage of Lies Saga!)

Originally posted on susannevalenti:

On October 1st my book Chained is going on sale and I’m looking for anyone who would be interested in having an advanced copy in return for an honest review (feel free to love it

Characters You Wanted to Get Together But Didn’t (Anti-Spoiler Alert!)

I don’t know about you but there are a few relationships in books that never worked out the way I wanted them to. Maybe I just imagined the connections I saw or maybe they really existed but the author never followed them through – who knows?

Anyways here’s my top four. I’m gonna focus on super popular books so as to hopefully avoid ruining it for the masses. But there are spoilers (or anti-spoilers as the case may be!) I’ve highlighted the books I’m discussing in bold so you can skip some if you don’t wanna spoil anything!

From the Harry Potter series:

Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood – did anyone else get this vibe?! I felt these two were so well matched with Neville’s shy but quirky personality and Luna being….well…loony. I thought they had it made – But alas good ol’ JK paired them off with rando’s in her ten year later sum up at the end of Deathly Hallows. Oh well, perhaps she’ll write about Harry P again one day and they’ll get it on after failed marriages – a girl can dream!

From the Hunger Games (Warning – controversial opinion imminent)

Katniss and Gale – I know I know! Blasphemy! But I really thought he was the one for her. I know she spent the Hunger Games with Peeta but I liked the set up of her pretending to be in love with Peeta whilst Gale sat at home watching them on the tv and going off for a man cry! By the end I accepted her choice because of…ahem…circumstances that may have put her off Gale but up til then I was routing for Gatniss!

From Twilight (Don’t worry it’s not what you think!)

Jacob and Renesme – it was soooo set up for this like sequel-worthy set up (*cough cough* Stephanie Meyer) but if she assuming there won’t be a sequel I would have liked a little (maybe even cheesy) sum-up end chapter of her getting older and them getting married – ’cause, let’s face it, Jacob deserved a happy ending after all the “Oh no, Edward left me I’m gonna make you teach myself how to ride a motorbike so I can drive one into a tree

The Freestyle Writing Challenge (Challenge accepted….)

Thanks to Candice for nominating me for this fun challenge! Check out her blog she’s a fantastic writer and you’ll love her posts – don’t pass her by! 

So – what’s the challenge I hear you cry? Here’s the rules…

Rules of the Challenge:

1. Open a blank document.

2. Set a stop watch or mobile phone timer to 5 minutes.

I’ve posted a topic at the bottom of this post for you to use as your inspiration but don’t scroll down until the second you’re ready to write!!!!

Once you start writing don’t stop until the alarm sounds! (Or else!)

3. Do not cheat by going back and correcting spelling and grammar using spell check. (The challenge is only meant for you to reflect on your own control of sensible thought-flow and for you to reflect on your ability to write with correct spelling and grammar.)

4. You may or may not pay attention to punctuation or capitals.

5. At the end of your post, write down “No. of words = ____” to give an idea of how much you can write within the timeframe.

6. Copy and paste the entire passage on your blog post with a new topic for your nominees, and copy / paste these rules along with your nomination of three bloggers (or more if you like!). – also feel free to take part in this challenge anyway even if I don’t nominate you!

Inspired by the freedom of a limitless imagination (as we all should be)

Caroline:

Thank you so much to Timothy who has featured me on his blog after I won a competition he held entitled ‘What inspires your writing?’

Please take a moment to check out his brilliant blog which is so popular that I can only ever dream to achieve his amazingness one day!

Originally posted on What Inspires Your Writing?:

If Caroline Peckham were a character in her own young adult fantasy stories, she might just steal the show. This talented author is vibrant, active, and also very funny. Case in point: she asserts that her hometown, “the most quaint, quintessentially English town you could ever imagine” (Kent, known as the Garden of England), should instead be known as the “Puddle of England” for all the rain it gets. She’s already released the first in a five-part fantasy series, Creeping Shadow, to Wattpad, with a Kindle release planned for the near future.

Adventurous to the core, Caroline has also done her fair share of traveling. She’s been back and forth (trekking the Great Wall of China and riding an elephant in Thailand), up (taking a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon), down (skydiving and scuba diving), and all around (from Las Vegas to New York, and apparently, everything in…

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I’ve Been Nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award! #FeelingSmug

Thanks so much to Suesreadingcorner! Take a moment to check out her fantastic blog (you won’t regret it!)

So how does this Blogger Recognition Award work?

Here are the rules….

1. Select 15 other blogs you want to give this award to. Do some digging if you must! Find those blogs. You cannot nominate yourself of the person who has nominated you.

2. Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two advice to new bloggers. List who nominated you in your post. Make sure to attach the award yourself!

3. Comment on each blog to let them know you’ve nominated them. Provide a link to your award post.

4. Provide a link to the original post on Edge of Night. This way, anyone can find the original post if needed, and we can keep it from mutating and becoming confusing!

Why I started blogging:

I started blogging as the lead up to publishing my fantasy YA book Creeping Shadow later this year. I have discovered blogging to be so much more rewarding (and not to mention addictive) than I had ever expected! It’s been an amazing resource to find like-minded readers and writers that share the same passion as I do for books.

So here’s my two pieces of advice:

For anyone considering blogging I say go for it! It is an amazing way to make connections with people all over the world who share a common interest who you can discuss your passions with!
Write about the things you love. My most popular posts are always the ones that I have enjoyed writing the most. I love rambling on about all the ins and outs of writing and, it turns out, so do a lot of other people! Yay!

Here are my nominations for the Blogger Recognition Award:

Phantomwriter
Koolitzable
Anansi2050
Booksatdawn
Susannevalenti
Damyantiwrites
Chrispavesic
Myredabyss
1951Club
Helenpollardwrites
Astro7747
SNBradywriter
Analindenblog
KLparry
Icameforthesoup

The Face of Editing…

  

This is literally my life right now! 

Are you a member of the grammar police? (Five examples that will make you mad!)

I think I’m asking for it with this post so hopefully I don’t make any mistakes haha!

But I’m not really talking about accidental mis-spellings (everyone makes mistakes!) but what really grinds my gears is the wrong use of….

There, Their and They’re,  it’s, its, and its’ …and don’t get me started on the wrong use of apostrophes…

So here are my top five examples of bad grammar that will get right under your skin:

5)

  

 They got the last one right! *bangs head against wall* They got…the last one…right…

4)

  

  If that’s what she finds inspiration in I think we’d better avoid this woman…

3)

  

If there’s one certain way to undermine an insult…

2)

  

That is literally tattooed on your skin for life.

And for my handpicked number one…it had to be this…

1)

  

Correcting bad grammar with bad grammar. Need I say any more?